callmemadam | Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without

We start with this sort of thing when we're about seven.

Next our kindly relatives give us the must-have annual for our favourite comic:

We get older and start buying annuals published long before we were born. The pictures are wonderful! I really don't need any more annuals; I have dozens already. But when someone at the market is selling books like the next two at three for a pound, how can I resist? (My third choice was a copy of Penelope's Prefects by Judith Carr.)

Easily justified on the grounds that they're so cheap, they'll be fun to look at over Christmas and one has this on the title page:

You can see why I broke my resolution. Also on offer at three for a pound, from a different seller: this little lot, which I bought for the pretty dustwrappers. Has anyone ever read anything by Ethel Mannin? She must have been popular at one time.

I thought they were all Book Club copies until I got them home and found that the Helen MacInnes is a first edition, yay! I regret having re-read it so recently.