Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment

Have you any Moore books in the back?

Astronomer Patrick Moore was a regular at Bush Books near the BBC.
Patrick Moore was a regular at Bush Books near the BBC. Photograph: Roger Bamber/Rex Features

Nell Frizzell’s article on authors looking for their books in bookshops (3 March) reminded me of an occasion over 40 years ago in my bookshop, Bush Books in Shepherd’s Bush. The BBC was based nearby, and many recognisable faces would come through our doors. Patrick Moore, the wonderfully eccentric presenter of The Sky at Night, was a regular. In 1981, he wrote a curious sideline entitled Bureaucrats: How to Annoy Them, published under the pseudonym RT Fishall. A few days after its publication, he came in and enquired about “an unusual book that had come to his attention”. We had an entertaining few minutes pretending not only that we did not know who had actually written the book, but also that we did not know to whom we were talking. It ended in a friendly owning up on both sides.
Michael Cook
London

• Do you have a photograph you’d like to share with Guardian readers? If so, please click here to upload it. A selection will be published in our Readers’ best photographs galleries and in the print edition on Saturdays.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.