Ali Finks and his daughter Fiona are up in the glens at the moment, in the shiel where Gillian Finks (current whereabouts unknown) wrote the book Little Grapefruit Takes The Bus back in 2024. I have popped up to see them, taking the opportunity for a weekend in the Scottish Highlands. It is a relief to be out of Edinburgh for a bit.
I have my laptop, an envelope packed with blank unfolded green tea slips, a pencil and a sharpener. The first draft of my new story The Table (for GP003 pamphlet Tables) is complete, with the green tea slips on which it is drafted carefully numbered 1-20 for inclusion as part of the GP003 package. The final version of the story will take some editing. I wrote it in response to a picture produced by Gaynor. It has taken me in an unexpected direction. There will be a separate essay in Tables, about the subject of Gaynor’s picture for GP003, so it may become a booklet rather than a pamphlet.
Before I left Edinburgh yesterday I posted off the A4 prints of Gaynor’s picture so that she can sign and number them (an edition of 20, as is the case for each of the 2026/27 GANTOB Pamphlet series), and send them back to me so that I can distribute them by the end of July.
I had quite a lot of time to think on the journey up. The process of arranging printing of high resolution photos, keeping track of green tea slips, drafting, editing and collating the stories in a pamphlet or booklet, and producing an insert takes quite a lot of planning. I noticed when posting off a GP002 package to Gaynor this week that there was a whole phrase missing from the original insert to GP002. So there are now two versions of the insert – the original and the corrected version. Add to this the need to budget and keep records of purchases so that I can demonstrate that we are either breaking even or running at a slight loss, to keep the HMRC happy.
To add to the complexity, I needed to decide how to choose which number of package to send to each purchaser. There is no GANTOB Committee anymore with which I can discuss such important matters. Ali and Fiona have not been involved much in GANTOB politics. Urs (wife of The (late) Benefaktor) is no longer interested. So I have to make the decisions myself. (I consider myself the Rick Astley of GANTOB – employed initially as general dogsbody, now the top dog).
I wondered about keeping the numbering of packages, and the individual items within each package, by order of purchase. But then I realised that collectors probably quite like to have consistency with numbering. So I have opted to allocate a number to individual purchasers, based on their first contact with the GP00x series. I have everybody listed in an Excel table, recording purchases and blanking out cells where an individual has not yet made a purchase, to keep that number spare just in case they come back and purchase the item in the future. GP001-002 can be purchased and GP003-004 can be pre-ordered from the GANTOB BuyMeACoffee shop. So far 14 individuals have purchased at least one pamphlet/ booklet. For the completists therefore, there are only 6 more opportunities to buy the full set of 12 pamphlets/ booklets in the 2026/2027 series. There may come a time when there are numbers allocated above 20, for example if GP001 has sold out but there are still copies of GP002 or subsequent packages available to purchase.
I mentioned the whole process of the 2026/27 GANTOB pamphlets when preparing tea last night for Ali and Fiona, as a thank you for putting me up in the but and ben they are renting for their summer break. I took the room originally intended for their son (the blue and pink mulleted one, who is busy with hospitality work in Edinburgh).
We talked about tables in their various senses, including the bird/ squirrel table that we can see from the kitchen sink (Ali did the dishes). Fiona, who is entering her final year studying part time for a Masters in archiving, noted that tabulation means “to arrange information, facts, or numbers into an organized table (rows and columns)”, which is what I am doing with the list of GANTOB GP00x purchases. But she also noted that “In a historical Scottish legal context, [tabulation] specifically meant to enter a document (like a summons) into an official court roll or register”. Which is arguably what we have been doing with GANTOB books when we send them off to the legal deposit libraries.
In contrast, the GP00x series is going to individuals, hopefully for their enjoyment, without being held anywhere centrally. They are like the finches and sparrows that I can see from the kitchen window currently as I drink a glass of water before going for a walk with Ali and Fiona up a forestry trail. Once these tiny birds have flown away they are completely out of sight and beyond our control.
There is another column in my spreadsheet of customers. Three people so far have become GANTOB “supporters”. That means that they have clicked the GANTOB BuyMeACoffee main page and pledged a sum (£3 x remaining number of pamphlets for that individual). They do not need to keep checking in on the shop to make a monthly purchase. They will receive the remaining GP00x pamphlets in the 2026/27 series each month.
If you would like to enter a similar arrangement, make your calculations and enter the amount in the “Support GANTOB2023” section of the site. If you are completely new to the series you would pay 12x £3, subtracting £2 for excess P&P for the first two packages because the first three packages will be sent together = £36-£2 = £34. If you have already purchased pamphlets you can pay ahead for future pamphlets in the 12 part series, £3 each. If you are an international customer you may wish to make an additional contribution, because postage and packing is rather steep for A4 (21 x 29.7 cm or 8.27 x 11.69 inches) bundles, particularly when we are doing it 12 times over. I will leave that to your discretion.
Meanwhile, I’m off to watch the hares and swifts as they play their separate games in the fields beyond the honeysuckle hedge.
MAUREEN KATZ, 19 July 2026
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