On our way back from The Netherlands we again topped at Saffron Walden, Essex. Sadly the good second hand book shop that was there has now closed down. Retirement I think.

I did though take the opportunity to obtain a slightly better photograph of the town’s War Memorial than I got last time:-

The Book Society, 1969, 208p

Aside:- It’s not often I particularly remember where I actually bought a book but Croft-Cooke had been recommended to both me and the good lady so when she alighted on this one in a great second-hand book and antique shop we stumbled on in Saffron Walden on our October trip it was a must.

On his uppers in Paris and with no previous experience of anything much at all John Scout writes, with the aid of his otherwise reticent girlfriend (who forces him to sleep with a sheet between them,) a novel called The Strip Teas for French pornographic publisher Klick. This is taken up as a ground-breaking work by a reputable English publisher who changes its title to Grand Climacteric and the author’s name to Jakki Trover. This gives Croft-Cooke the opportunity to satirise the publishing industry in all its aspects from agents through publishers to book reviewers and authors keen to raise their profiles as well as other topics including the law and prudishness.

The tone is that of the comic novel, no really serious points are made, but Wolf From The Door is very readable, though slight. Most of the story is carried via dialogue, though, and I found the consequent lack of description of surroundings irritating – as was Scout’s naivety.

The chapter titles are all listed at the beginning and refer to the process whereby a book comes into being, The Book, The Agent, The Contract, The Publisher, The Proofs etc. so it’s not a spoiler to say that Grand Climacteric becomes subject to a prosecution for obscenity. Scout, who always knew The Strip Teas/Grand Climacteric was rubbish, writes a completely conventional novel for his next effort.

Wolf From The Door was published in the 1960s. Perhaps things were better in those days as I only noticed three or four typos, a strike rate modern books in general far outdo. One particularly felicitous example was where Scout “threw his coat onto a char.” Another occurred in the “reproduction” of the advert for the English book where “Trover”‘s novel is given second billing to another from the same publisher but its title is spelled Grand Climateric. I thought this was going to be used as an example of where publishers fail to do the best by their authors but none of the characters comment on it so it must be a genuine typo and not intentional by Croft-Cooke.

I am left wondering how typical of Croft-Cooke’s prodigious output Wolf From The Door is.

Two more War Memorials from our recent trip down south. It is Remembrance Sunday after all.

The first, on the left, is in Great Dunmow, Essex, a village I used to travel through on the bus twice every workday when we lived in Braintree. The memorial is triangular in cross section which you can’t quite make out from this photo.

The second is in Saffron Walden. It is located at the top of the main street, which dips down away from it. I had to stand almost in the middle of the road to get a decent angle but unfortunately must have shaken the camera as it’s a bit blurry. Both of these are elegant, restrained and prominently situated at road junctions.