About Stock & Ordering

Books can be ordered via ABE, or directly from myself. I prefer the latter and it can be beneficial to the buyer as postage charges may be cheaper. I accept Visa and Mastercard, or cheques drawn on a UK bank.

I have very large collections of material by the CPGB, Labour Party, various Trotskyist groups and possibly the best collection in the world on trade unions and industrial relations. Other strong areas are Marxism, USSR, China, Eastern Europe, Vietnam, Ireland, Spanish Civil War, Co-operation, Peace Movement, Labour Movement History, Radical Fiction, Political Biographies, Left Book Club. There are also plenty of books on Anarchism, Feminism, Cultural Studies, Black Studies, Fascism, Third World, British Politics, Philosophy, Economics, Social Policy, Policing/Law etc.

Apart from books, I specialise in pamphlets and journals and there is an increasingly interesting selection of political ephemera (badges, postcards, posters, leaflets, mugs and revolutionary knick-knacks in general). Due to Abe policy, you will have to contact me direct for lists of ephemera – except written ephemera (i.e. postcards, posters, leaflets) which are still allowed on Abe. I have lists of badges, ceramics and some other odd items.

Although I have some expensive items, at the last count 87% of my stock was priced at under £20.00. I do try to price my stock competitively. And my postage charges are cheaper than most on ABE. Some dealers will charge the stated amount (that they have set on ABE) whatever the cost of postage; I decrease the cost for pamphlets. You can get an accurate quote for postage by contacting me directly. The maximum charge for post and packing in the UK (except Northern Ireland, Highlands & Islands, Channel Islands, Isle of Man, Scilly) is £10.00 per box up to 25 kilos.

Left on the Shelf is now registered for VAT, so the current rate of VAT has to be added to many, though not all, non-book items.

Libraries and institutions - books can be supplied on invoice.

Search For Stock Items

You are presented with two options: Search Our Inventory or Browse Our Inventory. If you select the former you can look for author, title, publisher, ISBN or keyword; keyword is somewhat subjective depending on what I put in that field when creating the entry for the book, but will often work as long as you choose a reasonable word or phrase (Paris Commune brings up 67 entries, Liverpool 74, Environment 77, Texas 4 – and 2 of these are Texas University Press). If you select Browse, once the page on ABE has opened up you must click on 'Seller catalogs' and NOT on 'Seller Browse'. You can then scroll down to any one of the 100 subjects/ 'catalogs' from Africa to WW2. Many book buyers find this the most useful, especially if there is a topic they are interested in rather than just a specific title. And with my stock, many of the obscure pamphlets would not be known, even to specialists.

Here is a selection of some of the Key Words that might be useful:
Adult Education; Baltic; British Politics Centre; British Politics Right; CPSU; GDR; Health & Safety; Land; IS/SWP; NMM; RILU; Scandinavia; SLL/WRP; Transport; USSR Agriculture; USSR Perestroika; USSR Military.

If you want to search for Signed copies of books, enter "Signed" in the Keyword field.

There can be difficulties with categorisation. For instance, Ralph Korngold’s “Citizen Toussaint” could be under Biography, Caribbean, History, or Black Studies – but it’s in Left Book Club! Be prepared to use some lateral thinking.

A hint for viewing the most recent titles in any subject: in Browse Our Stock, select any 'catalog' then in "Sort Results" select "Newest". Normally, they default into sorting by price, but this is one of the other options you can choose.

On the rare occasion I am away for 4 days or more, the stock will not be accessible – on my return I put it on-line again (ABE, quite correctly, ask dealers to adhere to this practice so that buyers can always rely on a quick delivery time).

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you want more information on a title. Or if you want to know about titles not yet listed – within the usual time restraints, I may be able to produce a list of new books and pamphlets on your subject. I pride myself on providing a helpful service. And a quick one – USUALLY I can get a book in the post the same day if I receive the order before 4pm.

Condition of books can be a source of dismay for buyers. When I describe the condition of books I actually aim to be a bit conservative (it’s the only occasion when I am ever inclined to such an aspiration), so hopefully you will get a realistic description of my stock. However, books deteriorate, some faults are missed, including the hateful page with one paragraph underlined in felt marker. Books may always be returned if you are not happy with the condition and I won’t quibble.

New titles are being added all the time, approximately 5,000 a year.