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Once upon a time (no, this isn't a fairy tale), I could tell you exactly which shop I'd bought any comic, toy, or book from, but as I get older, I sometimes find myself struggling to remember whether some items were purchased in this shop or that shop, or just what the hell shop was it again? This can be caused by the similarity of the layouts of certain newsagents in my youth, causing me in later years to be unsure which one it was. Why I'd completely forget in some cases is harder to explain, but perhaps it's just the onset of old age.
However, there's not the slightest bit of uncertainty in the case of this book, the PAN paperback of DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER, which I got from R. S. McCOLL's in the shopping centre of my home town. This would've been either 1973 or '74 (once, I could have told you the precise year, but that bit of info is yet another victim to the passing of the years), and there it was, staring at me from the paperback spinner-rack next to the one sporting the comics. It hadn't been too long since I'd seen the movie in my local cinema, so I immediately grabbed it and ran out of the shop (only kidding) up to the counter and paid for it. I just loved the cover so had to have it.
Anyway, just received the replacement you see before you this very morning (only 43 or 44 years after buying the first one I owned), so thought I'd share it with you here. I haven't read the book again in all that time, so might re-read it before very long. One look at the front and back covers places me back in that long-vanished R. S. McColl's and I feel as if I'm a teenager again. Some memories are forever!
