Bredevoort is a small village in our neighbourhood. It’s the Dutch equivalent to Hay-on-Wye, being filled with more bookshops than you can shake a stick at. In addition, it has regular open-air book markets. There was one today, and it being a pleasant day, I cycled along to have a look.
I struck lucky with two books. The first was a hardcover edition of Mrs. Byrne’s Dictionary of Unusual, Obscure and Preposterous Words. I’ve long had a paperback edition in my library, but it’s been well thumbed and showing the signs of being the worse for wear. To find a pristine hardcover edition was a joy. The longest word in it contains 1,913 letters (the chemical name for tryptophan synthetase A protein).
The second was a children’s book: Kemlo and the Crazy Planet. I had several books from the Kemlo series as a child, but, alas, lost track of them during the course of the years. When I saw this book (still with its dustjacket) lying on a stall, I knew that I had to buy it instantly.
The books were written by Reginald Alec Martin (alias E. C. Eliott) and were probably one of the factors that got me hooked on science and science fiction when still a very small boy. I’m very pleased with this find…
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