Siegfried Sassoon's return to Cambridge

The archive of World War I poet Siegfried Sassoon has been delivered to the Cambridge University Library after a campaign to raise £1.25m. Siegfried Sassoon was an English poet and author who is among the sixteen Great War Poets commemorated in Westminster Abbey's Poet's Corner. Sassoon was an undergraduate at the university and became an honorary fellow of Clare College.

The collection includes the diaries Sassoon kept on the Western Front and in Palestine between 1915 and 1918, a manuscript of Sassoon's statement refusing to return to duty after being wounded and notebooks with records of his school days and post-war journals and the progress of his literary career.

The library bought the collection after a successful fundraising drive - helped by a £550,000 grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund. Other organisations which helped fund the purchase of the collection included the Monument Trust, the JP Getty Jr Trust and Sir Siegmund Warburg's Voluntary Settlement. Private individuals also contributed.

Information taken from:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cambridgeshire/8418787.stm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siegfried_Sassoon

Collecting Alice and other pointless things

A rare edition of Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, given to the real Alice, has sold for $115,000 at an auction. I can understand people wanting to hold a little part of history in their hands but isn't $115,000 a bit excessive?

The book was sold by American football star and book collector Pat McInally who said: "I think it is the most important children's book ever written... so finding a book given to Alice by Lewis Carroll was really exciting." I haven't actually read the book, only watched the Disney film and the 1999 TV film so I don't really see how it is the most important children's book ever written. Please, someone, enlighten me.

Mr McInally was selling the books to raise money to buy Winnie the Pooh books at another auction coming up. Again, I haven't read the books and only watched the Disney film but I can understand someone's love of Pooh. On the other hand, doesn't the fact that he is selling off one lot to buy another show that he isn't particularly concerned with the books themselves and it is more an obsession with collection? I know how easy it is to become obsessed with collecting things. It's never happened to me personally but my little brother Michael has spent God knows how much money on collecting Match Attack cards and now the season is over, the cards are worthless and he threw them all away. Then the new season started and he started collecting again. The waste of money drives me MAD!

To read more about this story go to:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfordshire/8416127.stm

Really really old book on display in Scotland

The oldest book in Scotland is going on display for the first time in history and for the next 3 months, the public will be able to look at view it at the Edinburgh University library. The Celtic Psalter dates from the 11th Century and contains hand-written psalms in Latin, with Celtic and Pictish illustrations.

The psalter is part of a display which marks the refurbishment of the university library's exhibition room. Also on display is the finest surviving copy of Scotland's first substantial printed book, the Aberdeen Breviary which dates back to 1509.There is also a copy of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet published during the playwright's lifetime. The exhibition opens on Friday and lasts until 14 March.

So if you live in Edinburgh or fancy travelling down there, you should definitely go and have a look! Be one of the few people on earth to see the oldest book in Scotland!

Information taken from:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/8403526.stm