my name is Igor and I am also a Bibliotaph

(See DDW here)

The place is a mess right now - the scent of freshly curing plaster is everywhere - as are all my books, scattered in various places while the decorating is done.

The two old volumes, centre stage, were my Dad’s.  They have his name and date - 1938  - from when he was studying at night school, as many people did in those days.

In 1939 he joined the RAF as a radar engineer working at Shoreham on the South Coast of England.  After Dunkirk he spent the remainder of the war in Burma and India, again on radar installations.

Among the piles of displaced books I found another (The Broons) which took me back to my Mum’s family in Scotland.  

The memories evoked by these old books is every bit as strong as a faded photograph - more so in some ways, because photos are often tied to a particular time and place.  Books tell a bigger story, which is one reason why I am a Bibliotaph.