travelling man

I recently discovered a series of books called Everyman's Pocket Classics. Each volume is filled with short stories from a variety of well known authors (current to classic), and is arranged around a theme. Love Stories, Bedtime Stories, Christmas Stories, Cat, Erotic, Dog, Detective, Ghost, Wedding, Motherhood, the list goes on and on. They are handsome books with colourful covers, a stripy spine, and a built-in bookmark. They are hardbacks, but being 'Pocket' editions they come in at the size of a paperback.

I like them a lot. My favourite theme is the one that focuses on cities, hence the volumes you see below - yes I realise that Russia is a country. Further titles include Berlin, Prague, Florence, and Rome. I've been picking up my copies in second-hand bookshops and paying only a few £££s for each one, which is great value. I love the city of London, it's somewhere I'll be visiting again very soon. I've enjoyed some great stays in Paris, and would love to go again at some point. I had an amazing trip to New York once, half a lifetime ago, and would like to think that I'll visit again one day. The stories between the covers of these books are a wonderful way of walking all the streets, boulevards, and avenues again with ease. Russia I've never visited, so now's my opportunity, and I'm really not averse to vodka or a big fur(not fur) hat.

What I am really happy about is that this is an ongoing series. Everyman are still putting out titles, and the latest in the series to be published is called Stories of Trees, Woods, and the Forest, and it's gone straight to the top of my to-be-read list. It has a lovely cover, and includes stories that take the reader from Sherwood Forest to Sleepy Hollow, via South Africa, Finland, France, Zimbabwe, Russia, Martinique, India, Ireland, and Canada. I guess that's the beauty of a book of short stories from a variety of authors. The opportunity to travel around the world, and backwards and forwards in time, and all without leaving your armchair. This is particularly welcome after all the travel restrictions of recent years.

So these are the books I'll be dipping into for the next couple of months, as the dark days of winter slowly give way to the lighter, warmer days of spring when hopefully the world will open up again. If you like the sound of this series of books you can find them all listed on the Everyman's Library website.

Photo is the author's own.