onetwothree
Sigils, Prosecco and crying are my main talents.
- Joined
- Oct 9, 2012
- Messages
- 671
I can't remember now. Not a Grimm's or anything like that.
(waits eagerly for the first person to come on and tell us how their family doesn't do anything by Hauffs)...
It was called The Heart of Stone by Hauff.
Whilst emptying yet another box of my books from my parents loft, I came across a book which reminded me of a particularly odd coincidence.
When I was but a callow youth, I bought lots of the "true" ghost story type books, as well as many compendiums, usually edited by Colin Wilson.
To ensure no one ever thought of nicking them, I always wrote my name in the back cover.
No, I don't know who'd want to nick them, either.
Anyway, one of these books was "Spinechiller" by Peter and Mary Harrison (quick review: entertaining, but obviously bobbins).
When it was time for me to go to university, I disposed of these childish things to a jumble sale, so I could move on to the mature pursuits of cider and girls.
Now, I should point out here, that said jumble sale is in Leeds.
Some years later, when I realised that both cider and girls had their own drawbacks, I found myself in London, killing time before my trip back to the frozen north.
I happened upon a second hand bookshop, and realising I had nothing to keep me entertained on the train, I searched for suitable inspiration.
What should I spy but a copy of said Spinechiller.
After paying a significant sum for what was a tatty old tome, I relaxed into my train seat.
Somewhere around Doncaster I finished and came to the back cover where... you've guessed it, my name is scrawled.
Somehow the book had a journey of a couple of hundred miles, and ten years, just to come back into my possession.
Spooky, huh...?
Whilst emptying yet another box of my books from my parents loft, I came across a book which reminded me of a particularly odd coincidence.
When I was but a callow youth, I bought lots of the "true" ghost story type books, as well as many compendiums, usually edited by Colin Wilson.
To ensure no one ever thought of nicking them, I always wrote my name in the back cover.
No, I don't know who'd want to nick them, either.
Anyway, one of these books was "Spinechiller" by Peter and Mary Harrison (quick review: entertaining, but obviously bobbins).
When it was time for me to go to university, I disposed of these childish things to a jumble sale, so I could move on to the mature pursuits of cider and girls.
Now, I should point out here, that said jumble sale is in Leeds.
Some years later, when I realised that both cider and girls had their own drawbacks, I found myself in London, killing time before my trip back to the frozen north.
I happened upon a second hand bookshop, and realising I had nothing to keep me entertained on the train, I searched for suitable inspiration.
What should I spy but a copy of said Spinechiller.
After paying a significant sum for what was a tatty old tome, I relaxed into my train seat.
Somewhere around Doncaster I finished and came to the back cover where... you've guessed it, my name is scrawled.
Somehow the book had a journey of a couple of hundred miles, and ten years, just to come back into my possession.
Spooky, huh...?
That’s a very interesting story.
I have it somewhere in the back of my mind, that there was a similar quirky coincidence, which also had a story of a long lost and found book, but this story happened to the actor Anthony Hopkins.
Anyone.?
"The British actor Anthony Hopkins [who shot to fame as Hannibal Lecter] was delighted to hear that he had landed a leading role in a film based on the book The Girl From Petrovka by George Feifer. A few days after signing the contract, Hopkins travelled to London to buy a copy of the book. He tried several bookshops, but there wasn't one to be had. Waiting at Leicester Square underground for his train home, he noticed a book apparently discarded on a bench. Incredibly, it was The Girl From Petrovka. That in itself would have been coincidence enough but in fact it was merely the beginning of an extraordinary chain of events. Two years later, in the middle of filming in Vienna, Hopkins was visited by George Feifer, the author. Feifer mentioned that he did not have a copy of his own book. He had lent the last one - containing his own annotations - to a friend who had lost it somewhere in London. With mounting astonishment, Hopkins handed Feifer the book he had found. 'Is this the one?' he asked, 'with the notes scribbled in the margins?' It was the same book."
Found here!
Well remembered! I think it featured in a book by Jenny Randles of celebrity encounters with the uncanny.
Today at work for some reason I started singing 'In The Navy'. A couple of colleagues jokingly took it up and a third began looking a bit, y'know, emotional.
Turns out two of his best friends joined the Navy today and he's really missing them.
Dunno why I was singing it but it set him off!
I once bought a second hand book that turned out to have belonged to the late mother of an ex. This was nearly 20 years after her death. I kept the receipt just in case something weird happens. Sometimes even a simple excel invoice works too Heck now they even have people management software that does even more.
Well did you read it? I believe it was a message of some kind. Perhaps get in touch with your ex see how things are.
I'd bought the book to make up a '6 for £1'-type offer.
Didn't he leave a novel on a Tube station while preparing for a role in the fillum being made of it, then much later buy it back in a junk shop?
It might have been the director's own copy or summat.
"The British actor Anthony Hopkins [who shot to fame as Hannibal Lecter] was delighted to hear that he had landed a leading role in a film based on the book The Girl From Petrovka by George Feifer. A few days after signing the contract, Hopkins travelled to London to buy a copy of the book. He tried several bookshops, but there wasn't one to be had. Waiting at Leicester Square underground for his train home, he noticed a book apparently discarded on a bench. Incredibly, it was The Girl From Petrovka. That in itself would have been coincidence enough but in fact it was merely the beginning of an extraordinary chain of events. Two years later, in the middle of filming in Vienna, Hopkins was visited by George Feifer, the author. Feifer mentioned that he did not have a copy of his own book. He had lent the last one - containing his own annotations - to a friend who had lost it somewhere in London. With mounting astonishment, Hopkins handed Feifer the book he had found. 'Is this the one?' he asked, 'with the notes scribbled in the margins?' It was the same book."
Here's another strange one. A while ago I found a great uncle of my father in law who had died in WW1. He is buried at Euston Road Military cemetery in France. On saturday my father in law was on the way back from a business trip in France and called me to ask for directions to the cemetery, he wanted to drop in for the first time and view the grave.
He took the attached photograph. The first line of the gravestone is Joseph Boyd's soldier number. Also co-incidentally it is my father in law's Date of Birth. 12-11-58 How spooky is that!
View attachment 10888
He'd have to be depicted by someone who is big-leggy. And drinks milk.I was thinking last night it was odd that nobody had ever portrayed John Wayne in film or TV, I supposed it was because he was too iconic to be tackled. Just now I've watched the latest episode of Preacher. One of the characters in it is John Wayne.