Delivery Scams

There is currently a scam doing the rounds where one gets a text out of the blue saying "your Royal Mail parcel is awaiting delivery. Please confirm the settlement of 1.99 (GBP) on the following link".  The link then takes you to a fraudulent site which takes payment and other details.

Royal Mail has confirmed that it never asks for excess payment by text or e-mail.

Everyone should be alert to this and similar scams.  I myself got one of these texts this morning, and I'd hate to think that anyone would fall for it because they were expecting a delivery from us.

The Royal Mail's tweet.

Some more details on the BBC new pages.

Focus On... History of Exploration

By a large margin our bestseller this month has been William Battersby's biography of James Fitzjames, a senior member of Franklin's expedition to find the Northwest Passage.  You can see it here (if we have any left in stock when you read this!).  

I'm pretty sure that the recent upsurge in interest is due to the BBC screening the drama 'The Terror' this month.  But it's not a great surprise either: the Franklin Expedition has an on-going fascination, and books on it and the many expeditions that set out in its wake always sell well.

So I thought I would use this post to point to our other books on the Arctic, which can be found in our History of Exploration section (which currently has over 90 titles) alongside books on the rest of the world.  

There should be something there for everyone, so happy browsing!

An Update - Feb 2021

I'm aware that this blog is very rarely updated, so I've decided to make an effort to improve that.  First up is an update on what was happening with Diplomatist Books in February.

Due to the pandemic, most of our* usual sources for secondhand books have dried-up, but we've still been able to source new and remaindered books.  

In February we added 115 new titles to our stock.  We have at least as many waiting to be added in March.  Unlike secondhand books, these tend to come in multiples, so that figure represents some 500-600 actual books.  They cover all subjects: however, a significant number of them come from a German publisher, Kerber Verlag, and has increased our selection of art books - with many more to come over the next few weeks.

As ever, all new titles have featured on our Facebook page when they were listed.

In addition, we had an order with our wholesaler of military books that allowed us to restock a number of titles that had sold out in the last few months.

And it'll soon be time to get a new batch of postcards.  At the moment the bookwhippet is the fore-runner.

* I'm not sure why I use the nosism, Diplomatist Books is actually 'me', but the editorial we always seems more appropriate.

We're Still At It!

Despite all the issues with COVID and the worries caused by BREXIT, I'd like to reasure you that we're still at work.  Hopefully those who have ordered from us in the last couple of months continue to have had a good service (though I am aware that there have been some slight delays).

And just to prove it, here's a delivery we received earlier this week.  I've already begun to list this new stock, but be prepared for almost 250 new titles over the next few weeks as well as a restock of some titles that have sold out.

I'm very conscious that this blog is pretty moribund: but our FaceBook page is active, updated several times a week - do check it out.

Books on East Anglia

Given that we're based in the City of Norwich, we've naturally always had a number of books on East Anglia* in stock although that's not one of our specialisations.  Until now there hasn't been a quick way of browsing them.

Well now there is!  Click here to have a look

* For these purposes, East Anglia consists of the Counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Essex.

New International Postal Rates - 1 July 2020

As previously advised, increasing in international shipping rates (particularly to the USA) mean that we are having to put up our charges as of 1 Jul 2020.  They will be as follows:-

Europe - £8.50

Zone 1 - £12.50

Zone 2 - £14.00

Zone 3 - £18.00

These prices are based on a 750g parcel sent International Standard (not tracked).  We reserve the right to charge more for heavier parcels or other services.

Waterloo

As today marks the 205th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, I'll give you my annual reminder that you can see our list of books on the Napoleonic Wars here.