Book Descriptions And Availability

New Books

Size and illustrations. We have devised a set of terms to give an idea of the size of the books on offer and to indicate the proportion of words to pictures:

Very large means A4 or larger.
Large means quarto (about 9"x7").
Medium is A5 or octavo.
Small is duodecimo or less than A5.
Landscape or oblong mean that the spine is on the short side of the book.
Album means that the book is mostly pictures, the only text being captions and maybe a page or two of introduction
Pictorial has more text than an album but there are still more pictures than words.
Illustrated, photos, or similar, means that it is a book of text with some pictures, rather than the other way about.

Bindings and dust jackets. All new books described as hardback come with a jacket except where noted. Books described as having glazed boards do not have jackets.

Availability of new stock. We try to keep sufficient stock of all the new books listed, and can usually restock quite quickly. But please bear in mind that the majority of the imprints listed here are small specialist publishers, often one-man affairs working from a back bedroom or garage. They have little or no back-up staff and if the boss goes down with flu or needs a holiday the business grinds to a halt, with unavoidable delay to the supply chain. If timing is critical to your order please let us know.

Where a book is marked 'last few copies' or similar wording, it means that no more are available from the publishers once our present stocks are sold.

Please note that publishers do not usually inform us when a book falls out of print: we cannot guarantee that any book listed in our catalogue is available. If any book is essential to your order please let us know.

In the case of publishers with large back catalogues, principally Ian Allan, Oakwood and Middleton Press, only the most recent publications have been included. We can supply any in-print back stock from these publishers.

Secondhand Books

Dust jackets and bindings. Secondhand books do NOT have dust jackets unless they are specifically mentioned. If a jacket is mentioned the book is hard back unless otherwise stated.

Availability. Most of the books listed in the Secondhand Showcase are displayed in the shop. Apart from online sales they can be bought over the counter, or ordered by phone or e-mail. We update our site frequently but it does occasionally happen that a book ordered online has just been sold to someone else; if we have no other copy we have regretfully to decline the order. We can, of course, undertake to offer the disappointed customer the next copy we get in.

Condition and size. We use the traditional secondhand booksellers' terms, describing the jacket separately where necessary: For anyone unfamiliar with these terms they are described in tedious detail below.

Poor - seriously bad, binding broken or pages missing. Only likely in the Basement if at all.
Fair - worse than Good but not as horrible as Poor.
Good - binding reasonably tight, though boards might be bumped or somewhat dull or internally show signs of usage. A working copy rather than a prize collector's item.
Very Good, VG - a sound and complete copy which may show slight signs of use.
Fine, F - if a recent book, scarcely to be distinguished from new; if older would have been carefully looked after and very little used.

These terms evolved in times when a ropey volume was saleable; nowadays the bookseller is more likely to get an expensive but damaged book restored before offering it for sale. However a book catalogue is one of the few places outside hell where Good is a term of reproach. It is also worth remembering that a book lacking its jacket can nevertheless be Fine.

Traditional sizes. Books are printed on large sheets of paper which are then folded for binding. Up to 64 pages are printed on both sides of each sheet in such a way that, when they are folded, page 2 appears on the back of page 1 and so on. The sheets themselves come in various sizes with old-fashioned names: Crown, Royal, Double Elephant etc, and the size of the finished book depends not only on the size of paper but also on how many times it was folded (the format). Hence:

Duodecimo (12mo), folded into twelve. About 4½"x6½; eg an Ian Allan Locospotter's book.
Octavo (8vo), folded into eight. The most common book size ranging from 5"x7½ to 6½x9½; eg the D&C Regional History Of The Railways Of Great Britain series.
Quarto (4to), folded into four, a large book. From 7¼x9¾ to 10"x12¼.
Folio (Fo), just one fold down the middle, the largest book.

The size of a book can be described precisely using the paper size with the format eg Crown octavo (which is a small octavo). We don't use these terms much ourselves, preferring to state that the format is large or small as relevant.

It's interesting to note that there isn't much size difference between a large octavo and a small quarto, but the proportions are different - a quarto is more square: for example super royal 8vo is quite a bit taller than crown 4to.