My Kon-Tiki Expedition

Posted on by Vincent
I’d come into my favourite pub to get out of the cold
There was a sad-looking book there in an alcove, you couldn’t read its title. So I’ve brought it home and reconstructed its original dust cover, except for the back which is from a much later edition

There are two alcoves at the back of the pub, each with a table and benches for four. The one at the right is devoted to showbiz, biographies and reminiscences of actors.
But the vacant alcove yesterday was the left-hand one. It has a mixed bag of mainly tattered books: fiction, travel, memoirs (not showbiz) and unclassifiable.

. . . and saw a mysterious one at the right-hand end of the bottom shelf

It was a book I’d read and loved at the age of eight. It was very popular with the boys at my boarding prep school. The headmaster kept up to date through Horizon magazine. A second copy appeared on the shelves before the end of term *

 

I’d come to get warm, maybe write in my notebook, or pay for a cup to pour endless hot beverages {latte, cappuccino . . .) ; perhaps browse my phone for whatsapp messages to answer. But as always, I first checked the shelves .

… In there was a memoir by Topol, star of Fiddler on the Roof

Many years ago I sat in the showbiz alcove  and started to read these. I liked them so much I bought copies, wouldn’t think of borrowing them. I keep them on my biography/memoir shelves, as scanned here

. . . and this one by the son of the Korda brothers, Alex and Michael. who made many great films in the 1930s
This is how Merrion House School looked. The front door opened to a conservatory, from which you walked straight into the school library. I can still visualize exactly where the books which interested me were held. The Kon-Tiki Expedition was shelved on the right wall, about third shelf up. National Geographic magazines were further to the right, above at least 20 bound volumes of Punch—something like 1870 to 1919

Here’s a famous cartoon example:

Bishop: “I’m afraid you’ve got a bad Egg, Mr Jones!”; The Curate: “Oh no, my Lord, I assure you! Parts of it are excellent!” True Humility by George du Maurier, originally published in Punch, 9 November 1895.

* I was At Merrion House School in Sedlescombe, Sussex. See these posts

1 thought on “My Kon-Tiki Expedition”

  1. Yes, the KonTiki Expedition was very popular at my prep school too . Yet somehow I never read it.

    I didn’t know Merrion House was at Sedlescombe! I lived there between the ages of 2-4(1960-62), my parents were house parents at Pestalozzi Children’s Village. I still pass near to there regularly, on the way to lunch at Blackbrooks Garden Centre. All the best, Michael

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