Combining Fact And Fiction?

London has lost so many good second hand bookshops in the last few years. Areas that used to have plenty, such as Holborn, now have none. High rents, and gentrification, make us all poorer.

Finding myself in south London on Saturday, I decided to head over to the Faction Bookshop in Catford. Billing itself as having "the fiction and the facts" it is tucked away in the indoor market, just before you get to W H Smiths and Tesco.

Was it worth the journey? Well yes it was - there is no shortage of stock, with a good politics section (a lot more books on Anarchism than I was expecting) and a lot of records and DVDs. Faction styles itself as concentrating on new age, conspiracy and earth mysteries, which I assume brings it a pretty varied clientele. I wanted to pick up some back issues of Nexus for my 9/11 research, and the owner was able to dig out quite a few, even if I was not offered a deduction for buying in bulk!

Getting chatting, I think it is fair to say we agreed to disagree on 9/11, although I was honoured to be shown the model he made following his UFO sighting in Lewisham several years ago. I did not have the heart to insist that the only UFO's to be found in that area are when Millwall's fans have got their gander up!

The Faction bookshop is at Area 43, Catford Mews, 32 Winslade Way, Catford, SE6 4JU.