Pages & Proofs

The BBC reports on Deborah Levy’s route to the Man Booker shortlist for 2012. Levy’s book, Swimming Home, is one of three books on the list that come from small publishers. Swimming Home was published by And Other Stories from that publishing mecca, High Wycombe. The great irony of Levy’s Booker shortlist selection is that […]

Forgotten book of the day is The Wreck of the South Pole and Other Strange Tales by Charles Curtz Hahn. A novel from 1899 published by Street & Smith in New York.  There is a lost race of humanoid in the Antarctic that possess telepathic powers and advanced technology. A rare book and I love […]

Our latest video concerns F Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece, The Great Gatsby, and the story behind the dust jacket for that first edition. In the rare book world, first editions of The Great Gatsby complete with the original dust jacket and very scarce, and it’s the dust jacket that everyone wants. The artwork, by Francis Cugat, […]

Why does literature set in the American South so often feature disturbing plotlines? Violence, discrimination and all kinds of abuse are just a chapter away. Although these books can be disturbing, they are also riveting reads. It’s hard to ignore the work of William Faulkner and Tennessee Williams for long. When you click through to […]

Design Paragon has gathered together 35 examples of avant-garde bookcases – whatever happened to the Billy bookshelves from IKEA? My bookcases in the television room, my refuge from the children, are full now and I’m double-rowing my books. There is, of course, a book about constructing bookshelves – Building Bookcases by Greg Cheetham.    

The BBC tells me that it’s 125 years since the first appearance of Sherlock Holmes. A Study in Scarlet was published in 1887, and Holmes and Watson are still going strong. We listened to an audio book of short stories about the duo from 221b Baker Street on the drive to our holidays. The BBC […]

The Daily Telegraph carries an extract from The Richard Burton’s Diaries: 2 June 1965 Rose [at] 10 o’clock but weather dull. Had a good row with Burt [Elizabeth Taylor] and accused her, among other things, of lousy taste. She accused me among other things of snobbery. I said the only thing we had in common […]

I have no idea what this website says but they seem to be flogging a lovely book pillow. Now pillow books are a completely different kettle of fish. Apparently they started as sexual reference books used by concubines in geisha houses in Japan before becoming a type of diary, more for observations than just a […]

A Canadian World War II poster that was displayed in shops in Vancouver, British Columbia.

How committed are the folks at AbeBooks to bringing you the latest book news? Well, my colleague Julie gets dressed up in period costume and offers this video of fascinating facts about an exciting young author called Jane Austen. I don’t know the name of the horse in the video.