My copy of this book is a first edition 1932 in somewhat rough and well read condition. It was a long ago gift to someone as on the inside cover is the hand written message …
” With all my very best love … John” May 11th 1932
We’ll likely never know to whom John offered this gift with love on May 11th 1932 . But we do know that fifty two years after publication it became a gift to me when I discovered it on the shelf of an obscure back alley second hand book store .
Those fifty one essays compressed into 319 pages were the beginning of my collection of works by Mr. Priestley who passed at the age of 90 back in 1984 . His stories of travels through Britain at the same time my Grandfather traveled Britain captivated me and I couldn’t get enough of what he wrote .
We’ve all experienced, I’m sure , what is known as Deja Vu . Wikipedia would describe it as
{ Déjà vu is the feeling that one has lived through the present situation before. The phrase translates literally as “already seen”. } and the more I read Priestley the more often I experienced this phenomenon .
At the time I discovered this book I knew a book salesman who supplied stock to large chain book stores. He owned a large publication that described the works of authors and that book described J.B. Priestley as an author whose writings held the ability to induce Deja Vu .
I doubt I’ll ever understand how the writings of an author could induce such a thing….
but I do understand it is true that an author is capable ……
