Coming back to the Coppers' "Sweet Lovely Nancy" video above, which I've only just found after a day or two away from this thread: I don't think I saw one of them so much as glance at the book he was holding. The books themselves looked rather like replicas of old Jim Copper's book that Bob & Ron used to hold between them as they sang — I suspect as a sort of family tradition rather than as an aide-memoire: don't think I ever saw either of them actually look down at it either. I suspect likewise that the present-day Coppers generation hold the books as a sort of 'family-tradition' prop, rather than to help in their singing.