It has rarely been a time when serendipity and coincidence have worked out so well for our Oxfam bookshop.

I have said before, and no doubt will say again, one of the delights of volunteering in an Oxfam shop is serendipity – you can’t order stuff, you can only open a box, delve through a carrier bag, and find what you find, look at something which makes you smile.

This, dear reader, is a long list so don’t say you weren’t warned.

So, where will we start.

Someone came into the shop and asked for books on weather. 

He said his family had decided not only would they shop for Christmas gifts in charity shops, they had a theme – weather.

We we always, always have books on weather – clouds formations, climate change etc etc – but not this time.

Three of us scoured the shop upstairs and down, but nothing. 

Of course, after Christmas we have had lots of books which would fit the bill, but nothing at the time – sorry customer.

On the other hand, here is a good news story.

So, a couple came in, the same day, and asked for for an old  leather-covered bible. Not a request we get often.

And we often have one.

But not this time.

Apparently, their son had confirmed as a Christian as an adult and he loved second-hand stuff, shopping in charity shops etc.

And, they were not in a great hurry so I took their phone number, and said I would let them know if I found one.

One day, after the planning and work ( bearing in mind we have been doing this since August) and whoo-ha of Christmas, I had time to set out, clear out, rootle through the stash of ‘old and interesting’ books and found a bible dictionary which was not only leather bound, but presentation bound.

(That means, just in case you don’t know, it was bound especially to present to a student with a presentation certificate pasted inside. And it had marbled boards and page ends – no I don’t have a picture so you need to Google what that means if you are interested.)

And, sorry I did not take any photos.

It seemed to me to be a long shot of what the customers wanted ,but called them anyway saying they were under no pressure to buy, just a thought.

They turned up about an hour later, were delighted, paid twice what we had priced it at, and bought a coffee-table book (we had had for a very long time) on the most beautiful bibles in the world.

Later he sent me a text message saying how delighted they were and how much they had appreciated the ‘effort’ we had made to get what they wanted.

 As ever, there is something special about uniting a book with someone who is going to really appreciate it.

Next, serendipity and coincidence is more prosaic.

So, after Christmas I was thinking about that table to out out and I thought of cookery – what a surprise, my friends might say – and had a few old books and magazines relating to cookery which I thought might make a (slightly) interesting table.

I was upstairs sorting all this stuff out to fill a table when the volunteer downstairs let me know there had been a(another) donation.

When I abandoned my task and went downstairs, I found the donation included a copper kettle, a kitchen bowl, a set of cheese knives.

Sorted.

Finally, and thank you for keeping going this far, the end is nigh.

Sometimes I have a plan weeks in advance about table displays but sometimes I come in on a  Monday and wonder how I am going to make it work.

On one of these Mondays recently, I decided to put out books that were set in different countries.

Of course there were a few travel books, but also novels, history, etc etc. 

Now, there is nothing as useful as signalling your rather arcane theme than a prop and hey ho, someone, about twenty minutes later, donated a globe and some foreign coins. Thank you whoever you are.

And on the same day that it was announced Ronald Blythe had died at the age of 100 – most famously the author of Akenfield. Guess what I found stashed behind a pile of Jane Austen and John Betjamin…..

This is nearly the end.

Sometimes you have a donation which is not so much a delightful, serendipitous addition to your plan, as something you have to take a deep breath and think how on earth are we going to make this work.

A horse’s saddle.

Well, yes that was a bit of a surprise as a donation because it is not often we, as a book and music shop, get a saddle as a donation.

Apparently, someone brought it in and said her mother, a rider, had died and asked her daughter to give one each of her saddles to three charity shops in the town. (have to say, I have not seen saddles popping up all over town…)

So, instead of getting a bonus for a pre-planned display, we have had to build one around it. We have a lovely display of countryside and the saddle is front and centre.

God only knows what we do with it if it doesn’t sell – us volunteers, are so fed up of moving it out of the way in order to go to the loo.

And just as we thought we had sorted one large, in the way, unusual donation, we got a guitar.

One of our great volunteers was called in to tell us what it was worth. Some calling around and he came up with a price – £175 – a big deal for us.

So, my plans for the table were jettisoned smartly and here’s hoping it will sell before we have to drill holes in the wall and ‘erect’ a guitar holder.

Fingers crossed we have a guitar playing horse rider shopping in Petersfield this week…..