Book search assistance please! Sara Maitland's "A Book of Spells", a collection of short stories from 1987

[YellowJerseyPan]

I've found the ISBN and Amazon for example have never heard of it. I've tried a search on Waterstone's site and no register of it. I'm trying to phone my local Waterstones but it just rings out.

What other avenues can I try please?

tia

Well I've visited her web site and got the details of her agent and mailed her - who then linked me to a 2nd hand book shop who trades a lot in Sara's books. So I've gotten a copy ordered. So all's well.

But thank you one and all for your touching concern.

Well, I was goign to say it definitely exists because I've got a copy. But it sounds like you're all sorted :)

Oh.

I was concerned, but am too late.

Bah.

Impressed by your speedy solution though!

Have just pulled mine off the shelf - a lot of the stories are in other collections so Angel Maker is a good alternative that's more likely to be in print.

In case anyone else needs to know in the next 90 days.

Wow thanks all!

The story is I was doing a presentation to some students about working with people with a learning disability and wanted to convey the 'hiddeness' of it's nature, so worked a story around "The Eighth Planet" in the book (re Neptune). So did that on Monday morning without reading the story, and got home on Monday evening to check the detail was correct and realised I'd lent the book out to a friend a gazillion years ago and never saw it again. I was suddenly bereft! Hence the search and success today.

fwiw my recall of Sara's story was fairly well precise and backed up by t'internet enquiry.

So I get a copy of the book in a few days time. I remember also " A lullaby to my dyke and her cat" as really striking so I can relive that!

thanks again.

Nice to know others have it and remember her. I met Sara at a party once but was too shy/in awe to say anything to her.

Also I'd also got the Waterstone's 'out of print' people onto it - so if anyone would like a further copy then I will be able to do that too! It would make a great gift to a young feministy-enquiring mind, imho.

At least one of her stories has an explicitly described rape, though I can't remember the collection it was in now. I think mid-teens onwards for her stuff would be safest.

Hmmm unless my memory is really poor (which is poss..) I don't think BofS has that in there. I remember being told by my friend who was friends with her at Oxford (hence the party thing) she went 'off' for a while (1990's?) so you could be referring to a time there, and it came out in the writing of more challenging stuff.