I thought Ronnie Barker had died in 2005 but his legacy seems to live on at Vinnies in Ulladulla who've arranged their second-hand book section by colour. Obviously, their volunteer in charge of the book section is not colour-blind but he must surely be illiterate.
By the time I had reached the blue section, my eyes had gone more than a little bit blurry but I remembered that the book I was looking for was a blue one, and had no trouble at all picking up Emma Shortis' "Our Exceptional Friend - Australia's fatal alliance with the United States".
All we have to do now is tell publishers to print book covers in colours with names beginning with the same letter as the authors' names - Ray Bradbury's books in black; Graham Greene's in green (of course!); Erich Maria Remarque in red; Tim Winton in white; also H.G.Wells and Patrick White (of course!); and W.B. Yeats in yellow - and we'll soon be back to being able to find the book we're looking for by the author's name.
As an interim measure, I emailed Vinnies the name and phone number of a reputable psychiatrist to pass on to the person in charge of their colour-coded book section. Until treatment has been successful, colour-blind people should ask the nice lady at the front desk for assistance!
Postscript: It seems that Vinnies Ulladulla isn't the only one that has gone mental! According to an ABC News report, Vinnies' manager for retail Miranda Seaegg has sent several Vinnies stores across New South Wales mental - click here. I guess with a name like Sea-egg she would!
