Theme of the Month: New Uses for Old Passions
Contributed by Martyn

I am, as my better half will confirm, a lost cause when it comes to collecting. If I acquire two of anything, by whatever means, it can become the start of a new passion.

I am a completer, for example in music, if I like one piece of music by an artist, I am liable to buy everything they have ever recorded, like it or not, I really must get out more I think.

Anyway when it comes to books my collecting began many years ago as an offshoot of a love of films. It started with studio collections, there were a series of books on the likes of Metro Goldwyn Mayer, Columbia Pictures, United Artists...

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Some Birds & Mammals of Africa
Contributed by Jane

When embarking on some research for this article, my first port of call was my cousin Michael, who now lives in Rome, but was brought up, like myself, in the West Country not far from our family origins in Wiltshire. What I wanted to specifically find out was a) did our grandfather Leigh Heritage Richmond indeed own a Lion when living in Bath, as was popularly believed by all of us grandchildren, b) did he also ride Ostriches as a boy in South Africa and c) if either of these facts were true, how could I find out more? I wanted to see if he had any insights into our family's not so distant history...

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