Would You Buy A Used Book from This Man?

Or 'How Not to Do a Customer Follow-Up"

My wife recently bought a book from a fellow dealer on AbeBooks.  Yesterday she got the following e-mail:

We're just checking in to see if you received your order (XXXX) fom XXXX.  If your order hasn't blessed your mailbox yet please let us know.

If you haven't received your order or are less than 108.8% satisfied, please reply to this message. We aim to flabbergast our customers with impeccable service so do let us know if we haven't achieved this in your case. . 

Humbly Yours,

Believe it or not, I've improved the formatting of the message.

I'm a believer in customer care and getting feedback, but this is just WRONG!

Where Do You Ship To?

I'm often asked the above question, and the answer is 'Wherever you're prepared to pay the postage for!'.

I just happen to have a handy pie chart showing the destinations of the first 101 books we sold through AbeBooks...

New Stock

We just had a largish order of remaindered books delivered and in the last few days added the to the website.  These are books in 'as new' condition straight from our wholesaler at what we think are very attractive prices.

There are some old familiar titles that we've had in the past and which had sold out, but the great majority are new to us, and we hope will prove just as popular.  They cover the whole gamut of military history from Alexander the Great to the War on Terrorism - in all there are 40 new titles (including 14 on the Napoleonic Wars alone).  We hope that there will be something for everyone!

But remember, although we only have a restock of warehouse titles like these three or four times a year, second-hand books are coming in all the time and we add stock every week.  Remember to visit often to see what's available or to let us know what your specific wants are.

Napoleonics

As we mark the bicentenary of the 100 Days, I thought it might be time to dust off and update this post, which first appeared on my personal blog.


Greenhill Books and The Napoleonic Library

This week I'm going to talk about The Napoleonic Library, a series published by Greenhill Books.

Greenhill Books has an interesting history itself.  It was an  imprint founded in 1985 by Lionel Leventhal a giant in military history publishing (he also established the London Book Fair).  Having just sold Arms & Armour Press (which he had founded in the 1960s) and Ken Trotman Books, Leventhal was contractually prevented from publishing any new books, so Greenhill reprinted long-out-of-print and hard-to-find classics of military history.

Thirty-five of these titles were in the Napoleonic Library.

We have the following Greenhill publications in stock among our Napoleonic titles.


William Swabey, Diary of Campaigns in the Peninsula for the Years 1811, 12 and 13 by Lt William Swabey, an Officer of E Troop, Royal Horse Artillery, Ken Trotman (1984), pb, 217pp. £9.00.

Alexander Cavalié Mercer, Journal of the Waterloo Campaign, The Napoleonic Library Vol 1, Greenhill Books (1985), hb, d/w, 388pp. Slight foxing to the top- and fore-edge, but overall in very good condition. £10.00.   General Cavalié Mercer (1783-1868) commanded G Troop, Royal Horse Artillery through the Waterloo Campaign and at the battle itself. His journal was first published in 1870 – this is a facsimile of an 1927 edition.

George Simmons, A British Rifle Man: Journals and Correspondence During the Peninsular War and the Campaign of Wellington, Napoleonic Library Vol 3, Greenhill Books (1986), hb, d/w, 386pp. £10.00.  Facsimile of the first, 1899, edition.

Charles Oman. Wellington’s Army, 1809-1814, The Napoleonic Library Vol 4, Greenhill Books (1986), h, d/w, 395pp. Slight foxing to the top- and fore-edge, but overall in very good condition. £12.00.   Facsimile of the first, 1913, edition of Sir Charles’ classic work on the composition and organisation of the Peninsular Army.

A F Becke, Napoleon and Waterloo: The Emperor’s Campaign with the Armée du Nord, The Napoleonic Library Vol 29, Greenhill Books (1995), hb, d/w, 320pp. £10.00.   A reprint of the 1936 edition of Major Becke’s work.

Maude, F.N., The Jena Campaign, 1806 The Napoleonic Library Vol 35, Greenhill Books (1998), hb. d/w, 202pp, fold-out maps.  £9.00.

Austin, Paul Britten, 1812: Napoleon's Invasion of Russia"1812: March on Moscow", "1812: Napoleon in Moscow", "1812: The Great Retreat",  Greenhill Books (2000), Three books in one. pb, 416pp, 264pp & 464pp. Cover and spine creased.  £8.00.

Austin, Paul Britten, 1815: The Return of Napoleon, Greenhill Books (2002), hb, d/w, 336pp, plates.  New. £7.50.

Uffindell, Andrew & Corum, Michael, On the Fields of Glory: The Battlefields of the 1815 Campaign, Greenhill Military Paperback, (2002), pb. 320pp.  New.  £7.50.


Glover, Gareth, From Corunna to Waterloo: The Letters and Journals of Two Napoleonic Hussars, 1801-1816, Greenhill Books (2007), hb. d/w, 217pp.  £7.50.

The full list of titles we hold on the Napoleonic Wars can be found here.

Grabenbekfeidung Anybody?

I know this is going to appeal to some of you!

Vocabulary of German Military Terms and Abbreviations (Revised to 1942), HMSO (1943), soft cover, 219pp.,   Vocab book produced by the War Office for the use of intelligence officers.  Ownership sig on cover.  £3.00

The Cold War

Having just listed Helmut Schmidt's Defence or Retaliation I wondered what else we had in stock for Cold War Warriors.  More than I originally thought.

Mark Urban, Soviet Land Power, Littlehampton Book Services Ltd (1985), hb.  As new.  £4.50.

Andrew Wilson, The Bomb and the Computer: The History of Professional Wargaming 1780- 1968, History of Wargaming Project (2014), pb, 197pp,   New.  £12.95.

The Generals...

Michael Tillotson, Fifth Pillar: The Life and Philosophy of Field Marshal the Lord Bramall KG, GCB, OBE, MC, History Press (2006), 338pp, plates.  As new.  £3.00

Brian Wyldbore-Smith, March Past: The Memoirs of a Major-General, The Memoir Club (2001), hb, d/w, 166pp, plates.  Signed and inscribed by the author.  £3.00.

Richard Dannatt, Leading from the Front: The Autobiography, Bantam Press (2010), hb, d/w, 410pp, plates.  As new.  £4.00

Michael Carver, Britain's Army in the 20th Century, MacMillan (1998), hb, d/w,  As new.  £8.00.

And the view from the ranks...

Rick Stroud & Victor Gregg, Rifleman: A Front-Line Life from Alamein and Dresden to the Fall of the Berlin Wall, Bloomsbury Paperbacks (2011), pb, 273pp, plates.  As new.  £3.00.

Tom Hickman, The Call Up: A History of National Service 1947-1963, Headline (2004), hb.  As new,  £3.50.

Units...

Anthony Farrar-Hockley, The Army in the Air: The History of the Army Air Corps, Sutton Publishing Ltd (1994), hb.  £3.50.

Let's not forget the Navy!

Paul Beaver, The Royal Navy in the 1980s (Warships Illustrated), pb, 1985.  £2.00.

John Batchelor & Christopher Chant, The Complete Encyclopedia of Submarines 1578-2006, Rebo (2009), hb.  £4.00.

And the Spooks....

Christopher Andrew, The Defence of the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5, Penguin (2010), pb, 1044pp, £4.00.

Nigel West, A Matter of Trust: MI5, 1945-72, Weidenfield and Nicolson Ltd (1982), hb, d/w, 196pp, plates.  £3.00.

Archie Roosevelt, For Lust of Knowing: Memoirs of an Intelligence Officer, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (1988), hb, d/w, 500pp, plates.   £4.00.   The author, grandson of Theodore Roosevelt and cousin of Franklin D Roosevelt, served in the CIA from 1942 to 1974 throughout the Middle East

And, of course, there's also Korea, Vietnam and other late twentieth century conflicts...

The Boast Board

Several of our customers have been kind  enough to take the trouble to write nice things about us.  It seems only fitting to share these with you, so I have established a Boast Board on the website.

Go and share the in the warm and fuzzy feelings we're having.