THE BOOKBINDERS BALL

 THE BOOKBINDERS BALL

Billy Bob Boochmark loved books. 

He was born in to the profession of bookbinding and had spent his whole life creating, mending and extending books and manuscripts. His earliest memory was of receiving inscribed book-marks as birthday cards, and getting unintendedly intoxicated from the glue and resin infused leather. 

As an apprentice he worked as an indentured assistant to an aristocratic Bohemian from Prague. Manfred Glockenhunya was an unreformed bookworm and diarist, with unsubstantiated links to the aristocratic Hapsburg and Hohenstaufen families. 

Manfred Glockenhunya was just one of many bookbinding Barons who regularly attended the annual ball, which was set up by local dignitaries to honour their craftsmanship and wealth. The event attracted attendees from far and wide, and it was usual for delegates to arrive from each of the far flung outposts of literate society.

Ferdinand Von Iceburger was one of these intrepid patrons of the ball, who traveled up from the Cape to attend the annual extravaganza. His bookbinding skills were renowned throughout the industry, and his family were on the board of every bookbinding corporation throughout the world.

With offices in Beijing, Singapore, Pretoria, New York San Francisco, Paris, Moscow and London, Von Iceburgers grip on bookbinding was absolute and unrivaled. However, Billy Bob Boochmark was determined to undermine his vice-like control and establish the greatest bookbinding entity the world had ever known.

 Knowing that Von Iceburger would be his hardest stumbling block on the road to bookbinding domination, Billy had engineered a chance meeting aboard the steamship S.S Kreig between Von Iceburger and a distant cousin named Billy Joe Markboocher.  An ardent lover of Tripe, Markboocher was enjoying his dinner with Von Iceburger when he idly mentioned that he was interested in purchasing a consortium who imported salted barrels of Tripe from Argentina, for wholesale to the markets of Europe and beyond. Indeed, the Tripe he was currently consuming was imported to the steamship company via the very same consortium. 

To be continued.......