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“too fancy and ingenious”: Children’s books by adult writers
It is, perhaps, rare that an author can turn their hand with equal success to both children’s and adult literature. Indeed, many have no wish or intention to write for younger readers: see, for...
Science fact and science fiction: Part II
The first part of this blog series can be found here. Ray Bradbury has said the importance of science fiction lies in that fact that it is “the history of ideas, the history of our civilization...
Fantastic Beasts: Natural history c. 12th century AD in T. H. White’s Book of Beasts
In the blurb of T. H. White’s translation of this twelfth century Latin bestiary we are reminded that ‘a bestiary is a serious work of natural history’, and later, in White’s appendix, that...
Mad, bad and dangerous to read: banned books
In The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890), Lord Henry refutes Dorian’s claim that the infamous ‘yellow book’ he read in his youth was responsible for the onset of his moral dissolution, on the grounds...
By its cover: E. McKnight Kauffer
Colourful, carefully designed and highly produced; dust jackets are now ubiquitous in book publishing and are an important tool for publishers in making books look appealing to readers,...
Buried treasure and trouble-making: the lesser-known works of Roald Dahl
The 13th September 2016 marked the celebration of Roald Dahl 100, the one hundredth birthday of one of the best-loved children’s authors of all time. Into the lives of children all over the world,...
Bloomsberries
Leafy London squares, boldly painted furniture, cottage-style gardens and unorthodox ménages: the loose circle of writers and artists which came to be known as the Bloomsbury Group are perhaps as...
Nightingales and Roses: the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám
Perhaps one of the best-known, best-loved and most-illustrated poems in the English language, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is a unique publishing phenomenon. Translated (or, as Fitzgerald put it,...
Peter Harrington Summer Catalogue 2016: Staff Favourites
“Let us go, then, exploring, this summer morning, when all are adoring the plum blossom and the bee.” ― Virginia Woolf, Orlando (Summer Catalogue, item 256) (SOLD) Spanning almost three centuries,...
Doré’s London
Gustave Doré’s illustrations of Victorian London are not only singularly beautiful, but revealed to his contemporaries the harsh reality of life in this vibrant city. Although it was not a depiction...
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