Pages & Proofs

Our latest video is for parents of young children – we offer tips on reading to your kids. Bedtime reading is just part of the routine in our household but it’s definitely not a chore. I hope these are useful.

Last Friday, The Guardian carried a lovely article about breakfasts for literary characters. I love this sort of stuff where authors use the little things in life to reveal traits in their characters. The article was written by Seb Emina, author of The Breakfast Bible, published this week by Bloomsbury Meticulous breakfast prep often signals […]

The Saturday Book was an annual miscellany that featured art, literature and comment on British life during World War II and the decades that followed until 1975. The series was initially edited by Leonard Russell with John Hadfield taking over the reins in 1952. Each edition of The Saturday Book provides a wonderful glimpse into […]

The Bookseller magazine has announced its shortlist for the annual oddest book title of the year, the Diagram Prize. As always, there are some wonderful contenders. Goblinproofing One’s Chicken Coop by Reginald Bakeley God’s Doodle: The Life and Times of the Penis by Tom Hickman How Tea Cosies Changed the World by Loani Prior How […]

Cinema is a broad genre for collectors. There are autobiographies, memoirs and essays. There are books written by and about countless actors, directors, screenwriters, producers and even stuntmen. History, scandal, innovation and celebrity can be found on page after page. Discover more with our latest feature.

I love these Jane Austen stamps just issued by the Royal Mail to mark the 200th anniversary of Pride and Prejudice. Plus if you post a letter this week in Chawton in Hampshire, where Austen lived, or Steventon, close to Basingstoke, where she was born, you will receive a special postmark featuring the Pride and […]

Our latest video is a good one. My colleague Beth (check out her swan-themed dress) talks about the classic books you should actually read. I’ve ploughed my way through Moby-Dick and it was, indeed a very tough book to read, the language was particularly challenging. I finished it though.

Did you know that The Good Life actor Richard Briers, who sadly died this week, wrote a book on English Country Churches? The book was published in 1988 and the versatile actorvisited more than 100 churches for his research. Briers was a keen visitor of Britain’s historic churches and deeply interested in ecclesiastical heritage, He […]

Terry Deary’s recent comments about libraries came out of the blue. The author of the Horrible Histories children’s series had told the Sunderland Echo: “”The libraries are doing nothing for the book industry. They give nothing back,”” He then continued in the same vein to The Guardian and said: “Because it’s been 150 years [since […]

This book from 1945 caught my eye this morning – a book of French literature and painting, I think, with a surreal cover design by Oscar Dominguez.