Feast your eyes on this beauty! Further to my post about gorgeous new Mary Stewart Book Covers, I was unable to resist ordering a copy of The Ivy Tree after work on Thursday.

We don’t have an independent bookshop in my town but we do have Waterstones and WH Smith, so we are not bereft of actual physical bookshops. At Waterstones, the helpful member of staff was unsure whether the book would arrive with the old 2011 edition book cover or the scrummy new one (the new cover was on their system but I think it was connected to the 2011 ISBN?). She explained that if the book arrived with the old cover, there was no obligation for me to buy it and they would keep it as shop stock.

I then received a text when my book arrived and, as you can see, it is the book cover I wanted!

The Ivy Tree, 2017 issue. Cover illustr: TFL from the London Transport Museum collection
The Ivy Tree, 2017 issue, back cover

 

Confession ^coughs nervously^: I now own seven copies of The Ivy Tree. Yes, seven. I’m shocked too. As well as my marvellous new one, there is on my bookshelves and in my bureau bookcase: the Hodder 1st edition, two different omnibus editions, a Reader’s Digest edition, and two paperbacks from 1976 and 2011.

wp-1488047043125.jpg
SEVEN Ivy Trees: a grove of Ivy Trees?

Seven. What you have to understand is that these have been collected over a very veeeery long period of time. A few Mary Stewarts a year at most, probably. (What I need to understand is that I am a Mary Stewart book addict.)

So. Time for a giveaway. Would anyone (sorry – UK only) like my 2011 copy of The Ivy Tree which is pictured below?

wp-1488047071546.jpg
The Ivy Tree, 2011 issue: free to a good home!

It’s in very good condition and it is free to a good home. Let me know in the comments below by next Saturday, 4 March, if you’d like it, otherwise I’ll donate it to a charity shop. I’ll pick a ‘winner’ at random next Sunday if more than one person wants it.