Angels, Demons, and First Editions: Welcome to Aziraphale's Bookshop
Part of the Seed Pod #1 series for September, here on Substack
The following post is part of a Seed Pod collaboration about libraries. Seed Pods are a SmallStack community project designed to help smaller publications lift each other up by publishing and cross-promoting around a common theme. We’re helping each other plant the seeds for growth!
Credit: Prime Video
While slightly off-tangent to my Substack (although I have a very hearty digital library of books I review), I’ve neatly folded in my ‘Wales Unveiled’ connection with actor Michael Sheen and the lovely people at
. Further on, I’d like to showcase what technically may not be considered a library, however since ‘Mr. A.Z. Fell and Co.’ is a proprietor of rare books, first editions and classics and pointedly does not sell his treasures to discriminating collectors, here are some images (and a few books I’m mentioning) from inside his (made-for-television) shop… which opened in 1800 (and was rebuilt after the fire in Season 1!).
To the left of the sofa is a shelf of binders containing Wensleydale’s collection of The Wonders of Science and Nature magazines, referenced by Adam in the Good Omens book. Also housed there is a photography book The Home Planet (1988) and The Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition (1910–11), a 29-volume reference set. The open book next to Aziraphale’s chair is The Gospel in the Old Testament, illustrated by Harold Copping (1908). The book is opened up to an illustrated story of Adam and Eve. Above the head of the sofa is The Pilgrim’s Progress, Vol. 1 (1678) by John Bunyan and the Greek-English Lexicon (1843).
The Children’s Encyclopaedia Vol. I–IV (1922) by Arthur Mee is a ten-volume set, with five volumes next to the Greek-English Lexicon and three volumes in a blue leatherbound edition next to the cash register. There is also a copy of Nicholas Nickleby (1910) there as well.
Amongst other wonders from the shop, to the right of the coat rack (where hangs Sir Terry Pratchett’s hat & scarf): Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible was a five-volume Biblical encyclopaedia published 1898–1904. There’s one on the top shelf, two on the middle shelf, and two on the bottom shelf. There is also a copy of The Oxford Companion to Music (1934) located in this area, which is where Aziraphale does most of his listening to the records he purchased from the record shop next door, The Small Back Room.
Non-related, but fun fact: The bust that sits on the high table is the Head of a Victorious Athlete, also known as Benevento Head.
There are plenty of other books to be found on close inspection, including Fifty Amazing Hairbreadth Escapes (1937), The History of Witches and Wizards (1720), Hamlet (1599-1601), Beryl’s Triumph (1909), Modern Welsh History: From 1485 to the Present Day (1934) and even Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management: New Edition (1861) and a collection of Jane Austen books, including Pride and Prejudice (1813) and Persuasion (1818, posthumous).
(Michael Sheen kept one of the books from the set – Folk Tales of All Nations (1930) before the shop was burned down.)
Many thanks to the ‘ineffable’ Good Omens fandom for supplying the background for this special edition! Book links are for Bookshop.org, where “every purchase supports independent bookstores.”
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This was a blast to read. That whole scene of show sets, and their layers and layers of detail, is a world within a world and so intriguing. Thanks for doing it: I love it.
This is so cool! It always amazes me how much attention to detail is put into the sets of tv shows and films!