Ramsgate Harbour 1869 report, Dystopian Day in Thanet and the bookshop

Funny day at work 1984, 1985, wanting The Wanting Seed, Brave New Word, We. Discussions about the utopia of Thanet in 1960 or 1970 something - the customers who remember Thanet in 1950 something or 1940 something are getting less certain, but most seem to be fairly certain that as Thanet nears 2020 it becomes more dystopian.

Of course there is the possibility of BREXT bringing a new utopia, but even the great Mogg says this will be in about 50 years, bring it on I say like many BREXIT supporters I shall be over 110 at the dawning of the new utopia.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, or in my case bookshop I have been hacking away at innocent wood, shaping it into all manner of shelf and hacking out my new workstation, from where I hope to publish more books of local history.

I have to admit on the reading front I have had a bit of a deviation into high fantasy. I have managed to put together all of the

Niel Hancock books, the picture is of the first quartet, these are not in stock in the bookshop but for personal use. Rest assure I have the rest and if you wondered they are to post Vietnam American Buddhism wot CS Lewis's Narnia series is to Christianity, type of fingy. Consider the covers a moment, they do indeed live up to the cover illustrations or vice versa.

We put some books out in Michael's Bookshop in Ramsgate where I - is work the right word?

here is the link to the pictures of the books

Wetherspoons this evening, a wet and fairly windy night making Wetherspoons at The Royal Victoria Pavilion in Ramsgate pretty much an ideal venue for the archetypal British August.

I added a bit more to my watercolour sketch of The Royal Victoria Pavilion here in Ramsgate aka Wetherspoons, was it better back in the 1960s when I first started going to it as aka The Disney Showbar or perhaps just the showbar or show bar, a long time ago.

It was all a bit organs and big band sounds when I was into the Stones, Beatles... so I didn't take that much interest.

I doubt it has ever been as busy as it is now, even the first year it opened in 1903.

I bet if you were to be transported into Ramsgate in 1869 most people would be saying how good it was in 1830, unless of course they were young.

For other local history enthusiasts I am still in the Ramsgate Harbour area and here is the 1869 report on Ramsgate Harbour

Wetherspoons tonight

A few Pictures fishing in Ramsgate at the end of the 1800s bit of a ramble

 First some old Ramsgate pictures

 Then some Margate ones, in the unlikely event I get some time I will dates and captions.

Some Ramsgate fishing notes from about 1890

Shopping in Canterbury for me today, family clothes, artist's materials for me and inevitably books for Michael's Bookshop where I work here in Ramsgate.

Link to the photos of the books we put out yesterday

The bookshop is fairly busy at the moment and it was good to have a break today. |I though we were very lucky to get one of the rain free days off.

I had hoped to get some time to paint in Canterbury but no such luck, very few photos
here is the link
I do aim to try and take a day off painting soon. It's very much a case of the busier the bookshop the less time I get for other stuff which got a bit packed in today.

I really had no idea it was so long, see the video on the bookshop pictures blog link somewhere above.

I guess history is the main component in non fiction books and there is so little information from around 1,000 years ago, there is a sense of the Bayeux Tapestry being accessible because of the universal nature of pictorial expression.

I wonder though looking at the pictures I make and the historic ones I put on the blog, which bits would have any meaning in 1,000 years time.