Actually, if the question is a good one, I'll answer it here anyway...
I have a first edition of... Is it worth anything?
The short
answer is probably no! Barstow's books tended to sell fairly well, and there
are a reasonable number of each of his first editions. You can normally buy a
good Barstow first with dustcover for around UK£20 (US$30). (You'll
probably have to pay a bit more for A Kind of
Loving - dealers tend to mark it up because it is his first and most famous
book.) If you assume a 50% markup by the dealer (and that seems not
unreasonable!) then your book might be worth at most £15 ($20) or so.
In general, the older and scarcer the book, and the better the condition, the more likely it is to be worth something. If it is signed, then it's worth a bit more. But it is unlikely to be a large sum in any case - and without the dustcover, forget it!
I am looking for a Barstow book. Can you recommend a bookshop which
might have it?
If you're looking for Barstow in general, my experience
is that most UK second-hand book shops have a few in stock. If you are looking
for a particular one, there are four standard ways to find it.
Scour the second hand bookshops - you might get lucky! (And even if you don't, a second hand bookshop is a nice place to spend a half-hour...)
Pick a second hand bookshop that you like, and ask them if they have a search service. In the UK at least, you pay for the book if they find it, and if you like it - otherwise you pay nothing.
Go to the links page, and check out the Internet second-hand sites. This is by far the most reliable way of getting your book. I have obtained about two-thirds of my collection using ABE. If it is not there, then register a "want" - if the book appears in the database, an email will automatically be sent to you to tell you about it.
There are also some Internet book search services. I have not used any of these, so I cannot make any recommendations.
I have now made this easy for you. On each book page, you'll find the
logo at the bottom - click on that to search for the book! (This site is affiliated to abebooks.co.uk, and I earn a small percentage if you buy books via these links.)
I really enjoyed the TV series of A Kind of Loving that was on in the 1980's. Is it available on video or DVD?
Not officially, unfortunately. It was made by Granada TV - why not try emailing them? If enough people write to them, they may put in on TV again, or release it on video or DVD. (It's also worth keeping an eye on eBay - occasionally copies taken from the TV turn up there. Not that I could condone this, you understand...)
I am doing an assignment/some homework/an essay; can you answer some
questions for me?
Probably not! Please see the feedback page.
Are you the Martin Benson who was a TV and film actor in the fifties,
or are you related to him?
I've actually been asked this twice now - I
guess that counts as frequently enough. No, I am not the same person, and as
far as I am aware I am not related to him.
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