Strange bookmark found in a book.

[draughtycatflap]

Sitting here waiting for the man to repair my heating and I thought I’d start a new book. It’s an out of print one from the 1970s that I’d been searching for ages. I picked it up and flipped through to find a rather surprising bookmark. I’ll post it a bit later just to keep you all guessing. 😀

I wonder though, have you ever flipped through a book and found something odd, surprising, intriguing or unexpected? I would love to hear about it. 🙂

@parietal

OK, so the clues so far

• the book is called 'The front runner' (about US politicians)
• something racy
• something in the first 10 posts

But I'm going with a running theme. what about a shoe lace?

There's a film called The Front Runner about politics, but when I googled "The Front Runner book" it came up with a book about gay runners. Which one is it OP?

@VeganSven

If the book is a clue, is it a pic of a US politician?

Right title wrong book.

Bored now.

@SisterAgatha

I love these weird book stories. Makes me think of that Anthony Hopkins one where he found a random book on the tube.

In 1974, Anthony Hopkins acted in a film called "The Girl From Petrovka," which was adapted from a novel. Hopkins wanted to read a copy, so he set out to several bookstores to find one. He was unable to find a copy, and on the way home via train, he spotted a book sitting on a nearby bench. The book happened to be a heavily annotated copy of "The Girl From Petrovka." Later on while filming the movie, Hopkins met the book's author, George Feifer. Feifer mentioned that he had lent his own heavily-annotated copy of the book to a friend who later misplaced it. Hopkins then showed Feifer the book he had found and Feifer recognized his own annotations, proving that Hopkins' copy was Feifer's lost book.

That is weird... I’m not sure I always believe actor’s anecdotes though. 😀

Saucy seaside postcard?

Kinky fan art of the characters in the book?

@parietal

Or is the book this one?

The Front Runner by Patricia N. Warren
A gifted gay athelete is threatened with outing on his way to the Olympic games. The classic novel from award winning author Patricia Nell Warren.

That’s the one!

@chipperfish

I used to live near a rather charming second hand bookshop much beloved of students 20 something years ago Except at least twice (to my knowledge) people found rather weird bookmarks in their purchases - both times it was a fake card made up to look like the organ donor card but giving permission for necrophilia Cant seem to find the vomit emoticon here but I feel I need it!

I was never sure how serious or satirical they were, or whether they were put there by previous book owners, other customers or the owner of the shop but it rather damped my enthusiasm for the place

On the subject of the thread
My guess is a mildly risque photo of Princess Margaret wearing only curly wurly bar wrappers, stapled to a slice of bacon and a condom wrapper

That is creepy and would put me off too. What if the person finding the card was being watched in the bookshop by weird necrophillia organ eater man!

My rads are making weird bubbling noises!

Receipt or ticket for a gay club

I found a four leaved clover inside a folded postcard squashed into a safety manual in the back of an aeroplane seat! Found it in 2012 on my first trip abroad alone and still have it

I left a note for a colleague in a book once when I worked in a bookshop. It said something along the lines of 'Barbara, please could you give this book to that awful customer with the dirty brown coat and greasy hair, please? He's already paid for it.' I left it on Barbara's desk in the shop.

Then the man came in whilst I wasn't there, and asked Barbara for the book. He'd seen it on Barbara's desk. She hadn't notice the note slipped inside, but she gave him the book as it was clearly set aside for him.

Cringe

Is it a lottery ticket, OP?

How about a postcard of a banana, or was it a telephone, going from limp to erect... I'm trying to channel past student posters I remember from that time...

@Cheeseycheeseycheesecheese

A picture, suggestive but not naughty? CLOSE

Hmmm is it a naughty drawing then???

Yes! Well done Miss Marple! It is an art postcard that is rather risqué. First clue and second clue completed!

Photo of David Suchet in drag?

Dried flowers have turned up in Girls' Annual from the '20s and '30s.

A few years back, I found a signature of one of the Peterloo demonstrators.

Aubrey Beardsley?

who is the artist? Egon Schiele? Lucian Freud? Stanley Spencer?

Trying to think of other risque painters

@Eckhart

I left a note for a colleague in a book once when I worked in a bookshop. It said something along the lines of 'Barbara, please could you give this book to that awful customer with the dirty brown coat and greasy hair, please? He's already paid for it.' I left it on Barbara's desk in the shop.

Then the man came in whilst I wasn't there, and asked Barbara for the book. He'd seen it on Barbara's desk. She hadn't notice the note slipped inside, but she gave him the book as it was clearly set aside for him.

Cringe

Is it a lottery ticket, OP?

That is definitely peak cringe. Lol!

Can we see a photo of it, OP? Please.

I found pressed flowers in my granny’s old cookbook. She used to make greetings cards out of them.

Eric Gill?

@Roadtohades

Can we see a photo of it, OP? Please.

Of course! Now if you’d all like to gather in the drawing room for the denouement...

If it's not the suggestive bananas or telephone receivers, how about that "iconic" tennis girl who forgot her knickers...

so it was a postcard with a nude drawing?
What's left to guess.

I know that slices of bacon have been found in volumes of Shakespeare, but it always seems so much more sinister to find slices of Shakespeare in books by Bacon...