Using West's 1930s masterpiece Black Lamb, Grey Falcon as a vade mecum, Allan has written a wonderful, personal portrait of the countries that made up the former Yugoslavia.
A sharp scrutiny of the recent literary phenomenon by the emeritus Professor of Modern English at UCL makes clear the distinction between responsible warnings and censorship, as well as expo... read more
Gorgeous colour images, as well as translations and commentary on these celebrated Persian poems. Both manuscripts date from the C15th and are exquisitely illustrated. This will be ravishing... read more
Translation and interpretation are not straightforward, and never were... With matchless scholarship and sensitivity, Dr Barton compares multiple readings to reveal their ambiguities and int... read more
The title could pass off as a short story by M.R. James or as one of the exploits of Robert Louis Stevenson's little-known, rather Ruritanian sleuth called Prince Florizel. It is in fact a d... read more
A small book on this miraculous library, filled with 300 tiny books commissioned by Lutyens and Princess Marie Louise from some of the greatest authors of the time - Hardy, Conan Doyle and m... read more
A vivid portrait of a complex man approached through twelve books, including his mother's diary and Lolita. Beguiling and intriguing, he did not shun controversy.
A labour of love and scholarship, this is a study of the extraordinary Royal Library of Dom Joao V (1706-1750) of Portugal that was destroyed in 1755 in the Lisbon earthquake. The library co... read more
Several of the principal compilers of the OED have already been sung - not least the editor James Murray, who took over two decades to reach the letter 'T'. It is his newly-discovered addres... read more
The 40-year relationship between the prodigious writer and scholar (biographer of Gandhi, amongst other things, and a JS customer) and his original editor at Oxford University Press.
The author began his bookselling life in the King's Road (not at Sandoe's but Slaney & Mackay, where JdeF worked for him briefly). For the last 30 years he has managed the Waterstones in Can... read more
From the earliest printing to C21st zines: a very engaging account. The author is Prof of Eng Lit at Balliol when not noodling about with like-minded eggheads and a Model 4 letter press.
A neat bit of historical detective work enabled the author of 'Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts' to identify Becket's Anglo-Saxon Psalter, which he may have been holding when he was murd... read more
Like a detective novel of the time, the story of two booksellers who uncovered the forgeries of a pompous bastion of the literary scene in 1930s' London.
A vast array of material is expertly woven together in this illuminating look at embattled authors and their literature: Anne Frank, Orwell, Biggles...
Carey has been chief reviewer at the Sunday Times for over forty years. This new book is his own selection of his favourite books from the 1000+ that he has reviewed so far.
We heard about Molotov's library in Rachel Polonsky's superb Molotov's Magic Lantern (£12.99). Now we have a portrait of Stalin through the books he read - and he was an avid reader all his... read more
Argues that the physical form of books makes them distinctive, and sometimes dangerous, quite as much as their content. (John Morgan’s recent, limited edition Usylessly, with its beautiful... read more
From the Bible to Simon Schama, a huge investigation of how the writing of history influences the record of human experience, and therefore its development.