Inspiring Older Readers

posted on 03 Aug 2020

Sixpence House: Lost in a town of books by Paul Collins

Quite why American author, Paul Collins and his family decided it was a good idea to relocate from San Francisco on America’s West coast to Hay-on-Wye, a tiny town on the Welsh-English border, isn’t entirely clear. Collins comes from a family with English connections and he and his wife had holidayed in Hay previously but these seem wafer-thin reasons for them to up-sticks with child and seek to permanently relocate themselves in a British backwater. Expensive San Francisco may well be but it must take a reasonably substantial bank balance to undertake such a relocation – and the fact that the grubby issue of money doesn’t get too much of a mention rather suggests there was a bit more cash in reserve than your average aspiring writer might be able to draw on.

But, of course, Hay-on-Wye is no average border town. It is remote and it is rural but it’s also the famous pioneering town of books – a town of bookshops interspersed with a few antique and fine art shops just to spice it up and has an economy almost wholly constructed around this literary identity. And now it also has the world famous book and literature festival that has been called ‘the Woodstock of the mind’ by a visit President of the USA (it wasn’t Trump incidentally).

Collins and family make their move prior to Hay’s reputation going stratospheric when the town was still the jewel in the crown of the eccentric empire created by the self-styled ‘King of Hay’, Richard Booth – who takes something of a starring role in the book. Collins accidently encounters Booth, is offered a job as the next ‘American literature expert’ in the Booth empire and has plenty of pretty colourful tales to tell about the behind-the-scenes activities of the those shifting around literally tons of often unsalable books.

Hay is a small town and the characterful houses are hard to find if you want, as Collins and family do, to live in the old town. Eventually their dream runs onto the rocks of the property conundrum – but not before seemingly endless convolutions relating to house bids that flounder (inexplicably and frustratingly to Americans) because of England and Wales’ often bizarre property laws.

But in truth, the superstructure of the book – the vicissitudes of an American relocating to a tiny backwater – is not the main centre of interest. It’s the bookish anecdotes, the profiles of the often eccentric and colourful characters and the general bewilderment of the Collins family that takes centre stage.

When I finished the book I thought I’d take a look at what other readers had made of it and I wasn’t at all surprised to discover that this is very much a Marmite book – there are those who absolutely love it and those who hate it with a sort of venom. Let me give you a flavour of the views held by these two camps posted on the Good Reads website:

“What a delightful book! Though if you asked me what it's about I'd stumble around looking for the right words because it's a little hard to pigeon-hole. Not only is it a book about books, beloved and forgotten, it's also a peek into a unique location (Hay-on-Wye, where books go to die), a book about writing, an adventure of contrasts between what's American and what's British, as well as a completely engaging memoir. Fascinating, thought-provoking, and often laugh out-loud funny, I loved every minute”(five stars)

Or

“Had to force myself to finish. Was really no point to this book. Found the writer to be egotistical & self- absorbed in his own intellect & self- professed quirkiness” (one star)

 

So, very little  common ground between the camps. Where, then, do I stand. Well, in truth, I have a foot in each camp because both comments are essentially true.

The only way to resolve the issue is for you to try it for yourself. Copies can be found in both hardback and paperback for around £10 if you want to make your own mind up.

 

Terry Potter

August 2020