by Tomm Swords

Created on: November 26, 2009   Last Updated: November 27, 2009

This book had me playing detective and spending a pretty penny.

One of my nearest and dearest loves is everything interior design and shabby chic. If it has Linda Barker in it, or Colin and Justin, or the double-barrelled-named toff (no not Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall) with the collars and cuffs in it, she'll lap it up like the cat with the cream.

This in some respects is great for me, as it is really easy to buy presents for her. When I asked her what she wanted for her birthday, she told me she had been trying to get a copy of Vintage Inspirations, but had no luck finding one - did I say she is useless at using the internet?

Easy-peasy I thought, with my little scrap of paper in my hand which had all the info there: "Vintage Inspirations by Jane Cassini & Ann Brownfield photography by Caroline Arber". Well it wasn't so easy at the time. There was me thinking this would be an easy book to pluck from the internet tree - the usual suspects Amazon, eBay zilch, no luck.

Then of course there was the Google search, which led me to ebid.net. Bingo! Book found! Ebid.net really is the hidden jewel in the world of online buying and has both helped me find those 'hen's-teeth' items and saved me money.

This cost me a few shillings to say the least, but it was a present, and one which I knew would be well appreciated.

So what is so special about this book?

Well it is a good solid hard cover book, full of ideas and jumping with photographs that really are excellent quality. From that point of view, the book is a work of art in itself. Like all good books, it has an introduction that doesn't waffle.

It is a book about vintage objects, finding them and using them to make your home a beautiful place. It is a book which will be a great ideas-trigger for the artistic and a pure inspiration for the not so artistic, but who likes to keep a well presented home.

The first part of the book, is called "Inspiration" and will lead you on a trail of gathering items, essentially giving you ideas on the type of objects you should look out for - buttons, bows, fabrics, old keys, objet d'art. This leads on to how to source these artefacts and make such discoveries.

The second part gets to be more practical and deals with the home, and is structured into: soft furnishings, decorating walls, table decorations, plants and flowers, home work, dressing table.

Part three looks into the collecting side of interior design and how to use collections to present a lovely display. This really does have

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