Sold to the Man with the Tin Leg (by Philip Serrell)

I was idly browsing a church book stall a few months ago when I spotted a book with the intriguing title, ‘Sold to the Man with the Tin Leg’. I had not come across the author, Philip Serrell, before; apparently he is a popular TV presenter nowadays. A quick glance at the back of the book suggested that it was in the style popularised by James Herriot. The author of this book was an auctioneer, and the book contained some of his amusing memories as a trainee.

So I paid fifty cents for it, and the book sat on my to-be-read shelf for a while. But I finally picked it up to read this week, and have just finished reading it. It does indeed contain accounts of the author’s early forays into the world of an auctioneer. He learns to collect and value items, to visit outlying farms and negotiate with the owners, and - on occasion - actually to sell things.

This book is, as it turns out, a sequel to ‘An Auctioneer’s Lot’, but there is no need to have read that first. I assume that book covers his initial decision to give up his job as a sports teacher and learn a new trade, and I have to admit to mild curiosity as to why anyone would do that. But not sufficient to get hold of the book. In this one, set in 1977, Philip is twenty-two. He has been working with a somewhat disorganised (but quite successful) auctioneer called Mr Rayer for about a year.

Inevitably Philip makes some mistakes: over-valuing, under-valuing, mistaking signs in an auction, being taken in by fraud, and more. He has to climb through mud, drive long distances, and sometimes deal with folk with various afflictions, some of them rather smelly. There is the material for a very amusing book here.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite work. There’s too much detail in places that don’t need it, and rather a lot of introspection rather than action. Most of the outcomes of the chapters could be foreseen from a few pages earlier, meaning that the punch-line or ‘twist’ was entirely expected. People’s idiosyncrasies are mostly explained rather than shown, and I found myself increasingly mystified as to why anyone could possibly enjoy this kind of work.

Still, it was quite interesting to see what the job of country auctioneer was like forty years ago. And while some of the people in the accounts seem highly caricatured, Philip himself comes across as a likeable, enthusiastic and gentle person. There’s also a very low-key budding romantic thread, although it’s left rather open at the end - and I don’t think there’s a sequel to this book.

I kept reading, and didn’t dislike it. It's gentle, and it shows a form of life which has probably long ceased. It's a good book to dip into, as each chapter is complete in itself. Indeed, it's evidently quite popular and is still in print, thirteen years after publication.

But it didn't really grab me, and I doubt if I’ll read it again.

Review copyright 2019 Sue's Book Reviews