Picture the scene…
It’s 1962, and a young lady, Sue, was on a train, somewhere in Europe bound for a ski trip to St. Anton in Austria. At some point a man boarded the train selling fruit and Sue bought a banana from him.
When she started to peel it, the man sat opposite her piped up with perhaps the most unusual introduction anyone in that carriage had ever heard;
‘If I was you, I wouldn’t eat that banana – it’s got Sigatoga disease.’
That was me, Barrie Kaye, a young man, an ex-banana planter* and also Austria-bound. Now, there are only two reasons you have to get married – and one of these is a ‘chat-up line’ like that! Although I did know a thing or two about bananas, it was that moment, and that chat-up line which were to shape the rest of my life.
Two years later we were married, both having given up secure jobs and now striving to get a turnover of £200 per month by selling old books through our business, K Books.
Over 50 years and many books later, we’re embracing the digital age with Twitter and Instagram (whatever they are) and a new website which will tell our story, and even have quite a few of the books and prints we’ve amassed over the years.
Barrie and Sue
KBooks Ltd
*See the book Boa, Memoirs of a Banana Planter in Remote West Africa as evidence!