A Collector’s Trail

Spread from Trading in Memories, by Barbara HodgsonWith my revived interest in collecting ephemera with which to make collages, I was prompted on the weekend to pull an old book from the shelf. Written by Barbara Hodgson, Trading in Memories – Travels Through a Scavenger’s Favourite Places is a wonderful account of a collector’s trail through Europe, the Middle-East, the Orient and back home again to Vancouver in British Columbia.

The short chapters are written as essays, and they are easy to read and full of fascinating titbits and a wealth of detail. Hodgson’s writing style is evocative – her words draw an enticing picture in the mind’s eye that would surely be best expressed in the form of a magic lantern show, or flickering film reel from 1910.

Spread from Trading in Memories, by Barbara HodgsonSpread from Trading in Memories, by Barbara HodgsonSpread from Trading in Memories, by Barbara HodgsonIf the words aren’t enough to help you step back in time, the images will. What an astonishing assortment of ephemera she has collected or photographed, presented in collages or displayed in cases reminiscent of the Victorian mania for collecting curios.

Her words will truly whisk you off on a whirlwind tour while you are still comfortably curled up in your armchair, a cup of Turkish coffee at your elbow.

Scroll through some sample pages here, and make sure to click on the images to see larger versions. Included are the four pages of the last chapter, with her ‘few words to scavengers’.

Read a review at Good Reads or The Sydney Morning Herald.

Spread from Trading in Memories, by Barbara HodgsonTwo pages from Trading in Memories, by Barbara HodgsonSpread from Trading in Memories, by Barbara HodgsonSpread from Trading in Memories, by Barbara HodgsonSpread from Trading in Memories, by Barbara Hodgson