The first 10 books sold at Wanstead’s new bookshop


People queued outside the Oxfam bookshop on Wanstead High Street on Saturday morning, anticipating the 10am opening of what, according to reliable sources, is believed to be Wanstead’s first bookshop in at least 50 years.

And here, exclusively to Wansteadium, are the first ten purchases made at the shop:

1. Rembrandt’s Eyes by Simon Schama

2. The Great Moghuls by Bamber Gascoigne

3. American Prince, My Autobiography, by Tony Curtis

4. Tommy: The British Soldier on the Western Front 1914-18, by Richard Holmes

5. Collins Dictionary and Thesaurus 2004

6. The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood (Audio CD)

7. Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier
Nicholas Nickleby, by Charles Dickens (Audio book)

8. Beatles by Lars Saabye Christensen
Bob Dylan Chronicles book one
Tarantino A-Zed by Alan Barnes and Marcus Hearn
Classical 1000 – Top recordings of all time, by Rob Cowan

9 . The Young Lloyd George, by John Grigg
WG’s Birthday Party by David Kynaston

10. Coast – The Journey Continues, by Christopher Somerville
The Somme Day by Day Account by Chris McCarthy

Thanks to Mark Appiah and shop manager Jillian White.

Photo: Peter Hall

Choice tweets about Wanstead XXI; Busy, busy, busy

Checking out Wanstead’s new Oxfam Books and Music – probably the busiest shop in the history of busy shops.less than a minute ago via OpenBeak

Wanstead news roundup, 01.10.10; Food, money and Snow

• Campaigners are calling on Redbridge Council to introduce food waste collections – it is just one of nine London boroughs which does not offer the service. But at the same time well over 1,000 people have been taking part in the Redbridge Conversation, an impressive online tool for weighing up where spending cuts should fall. (More about this tool on Wansteadium later this week.)

• Wanstead resident Chris Rigby, who installed solar panels on his roof in January, has had his first cheque FROM a power company. Scottish Power paid him £175 – a first return on the £8,500 panels, for which he also received a £2,500 grant. This week he told the Daily Mail that he does not now have to use his boiler to heat water between May and September.

• Wanstead cultural event of the week: Peter Snow is speaking at Wanstead Library tonight, Friday, at 7pm. Tickets are £5.

Wanstead’s bookshop: Saturday’s the day

Wanstead’s Oxfam bookshop will open on Saturday morning at 10am, Wansteadium can reveal.

The preparations, which have included completely overhauling the inside of the former travel agent on Wanstead High Street, have been completed; the shelves are filled with books and volunteers have been signed up, though more are still welcome.

Oxfam area manager Mark Appiah confirmed the opening plan to Wansteadium. Reviews from readers welcome here from Saturday.

Redbridge newsletter could face cut

[picappgallerysingle id=”9380062″]Publication of Redbridge Life, the monthly council newspaper distributed free to houses in the borough, could be cut to once every three months under a plan to be announced by Communities and Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles (above).

Council-run newsletters, dubbed “town hall Pravdas” by some, have been criticised by owners of local newspapers for making their business harder. As well as meeting some appetite for local news, they are usually part-funded by advertising.

Thanks to a Freedom of Information request by L Barnett, it is known that 110,000 copies of Redbridge Life are printed each month, and that it has a readership of 250,000. In 2009/10 it was budgeted to cost £141,761, and up to last December, £17,810 of that had been offset by non-council adverts, including some from the NHS, TfL and universities and colleges. The council is aiming to save £4m from its budget this year, and had already been planning to cut the cost of Redbridge Life by £25,000.

Mr Pickles is reported by the Guardian to be about to believed to be about to announce a tightening of the rules. The paper reports:

Under the new rules, it is understood councils will only be allowed to publish free titles four times a year. They will also have to remove any content which appears to praise the council or endorse the quality of its local services, including quotes from local residents