Whilst Rickaro Books is transferring ownership of the retail shop, we are continuing to provide a full postal or personal delivery service.
Rickaro Books lives on, continuing to trade online providing a service for all our customers. We are happy to order any title that you might like to read and while away the hours. There is nothing like a good substantial read to occupy and enliven the mind. Remember reading gives the imagination wings. Just contact us on rickarobooks@gmail.com or by telephone on 07831218624. We look forward to keeping in contact with all our customers in these testing times.
Whilst we carry a varied range of collectable books, our favourite specialism is T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia). We are often asked just why this is so. Well, the reasons are as varied as the books relating to Lawrence. My personal interest was first fired whilst excavating a medieval castle site in Yorkshire back in the 1960s and 70s. Upon seeking around for material on castles I came across the splendid Golden Cockerel Press edition of “Crusader Castles” being his thesis on castles in the Middle East. accompanied by the volume of his letters written whilst visiting castle sites in England and Wales. This fired up by these volumes, acquired on inter-library loan, way beyond the means of a 15 year old. I went on to research the man. I found that many interests appeared to overlap, these included a love of fine printing, books, motorcycles and speed as well as the pure pleasure of reading his published letters. Like many other Lawrence enthusiasts I have found that he acts as a conduit to many other personalities, be they writers like David Garnett, Henry Williamson, Siegfried Sassoon, G.B. Shaw, Frederic Manning, or poets like James Elroy Flecker, Robert Graves and many another writer or wonderful characters like George Brough, Lowell Thomas, Liddell Hart or Lord Carlow. Whilst not quite endless the list is long and fascinating.Lawrence collectors are drawn into their interest by many things, the military campaigns of the Arab Revolt, the David Lean film of 1962 or like myself through the historical and literary aspects.
Whatever the means of entry, once in the collection is many and varies, from fabulous and often expensive fine press books through to more mundane biographies and memoirs. You can focus on books, artefact, original letters or exciting ephemeral items.Whatever your field of interest you will find the road ahead littered with byways and crossroads that lead you on a journey that can last a lifetime. So here to whet your appetite are a few images.
The History of Mountbatten (Cattewater) Typescript and Original Photographs
A typescript with original photographs bound with card covers with printed title and RAF crest of Royal Air Force Station Mountbatten, produced for internal use only. A unique item from the family of TE Lawrence companion Tom Beaumont, with Ministry of Defence stamp to rear board dated 3 Oct 1966. Comprising 27 typed pages and some 20 original photographs documenting the history of the station incldes views of the site and a 200 motor boat and Sunderland flying boat etc. Mentions TE Lawrence (Shaw) on 6 and 10. Please contact us for further details.
A fine, new copy in blue quarter cloth with silver facsimile initial “TES” to front board and silver title to spine. A limited edition of just one hundred and fifty copies, each hand numbered. 36pp with 5 plates in b/w.. An essay written following the discovery of a 1925 letter written by Lawrence to Captain Raymond Goslett that was found tipped into copy number 50 of the UK limited issue of Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Analysing the letter in depth, this work seeks to give us insight into the enigmatic figure who became immortalised as Lawrence of Arabia, as well as providing an insight into two of his friends.
A little book with an intriguing connection to Lawrence of Arabia: Richard Knowles tells the story.
The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World to That Which is to Come. Delivered Under the Similitude of a Dream. Wherin is Discovered the Manner of His Setting Out; His Dangerous Journey and Safe Arrival at the Desired Country. Essex House Press, 1899.
This is without doubt T.E. Lawrence’s own copy, number 407 of an edition of 750 copies. It is recorded in “T.E. Lawrence by His Friends” that this numbered copy was in the Clouds Hill Library of T.E. Lawrence. In “Friends, Vyvyan Richards records that; “He had a very good collection of the best hand-press books, from Kelmscott to Ashendene, and also a number of finely tooled bindings in which he rejoiced. In fact in order to decide on the type to be used in printing his own book, (Seven Pilliars, 1926) we gathered these hand-printed books in his room at All Souls College, and strewed them open over tables and chairs so that we could walk round and compare them. We chose independently and without discussion, and it was a satisfaction that we both wanted the same – the beautiful little Bunyan of C.R. Ashbee, a Caslon fount. This face has preserved its tradition so well that I do not think it was necessary to have special dies cut for the matrix of the monotype caster”. Here is that very volume! This is the third book from the Essex House Press while it was printing in East London. The Press had been founded by Laurence Hodson and C.R. Ashbee “in the hope to keep living the traditions of good printing that William Morris had revived”. They used two compositers and a pressman straight from Kelmscott. So here is a thrilling little book with a wonderful provenance.
Our latest film on YouTube: Richard Knowles of Rickaro Books, Horbury, traces the connections of a book from the shelves of the library of Lawrence of Arabia, at his house at Clouds Hill.
Gargoyles & Tattie-Bogles: The Lives & Work of Douglas Percy Bliss & Phyllis Dodd £272.00
While Douglas Percy Bliss wrote kindly and perceptively several decades ago about his friend Edward Bawden (for a book published by the Pendomer Press), and earlier in his career took up the pen to write about Eric Ravilious and the emerging engravers of the 1920s, no-one has written comprehensively about Bliss himself, who was a notable engraver, teacher and – especially – landscape painter; the same applies to his wife Phyllis Dodd. This title includes tipped-in prints made from four of Douglas’ wood-engraved blocks, and one by Rosalind Bliss.
Thomas Gent was born to parents of ordinary background. His father was an Englishman, and he was baptised a Presbyterian. His parents ensured he educated himself during his childhold, and in 1707 he began an apprenticeship with Stephen Powell, a printer of Dublin.
Gent’s apprenticeship was an unhappy one, and in 1710 he absconded, and stowed way on a ship, arriving in Wirral, England, then travelled to London where he took up apprenticeship under Edward Midwinter. After completing his apprenticeship in 1713, he worked briefly for a Mrs. Bradford, and then for a printer named Mears, who involved him in a humiliating initiation rite, discharging him soon after, following which he subsisted by labouring. After arriving in York he obtained a post with John White in April 1714, King’s printer for York, at a rate of £18 a year, plus board and lodging. There he met Alice Guy who became the object of his affections and whom he would later marry.
“I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! — When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.” ― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
