John Sutherland
Ha’p’orth of Tar
Every so often a book comes along that infuriates one not for the usual reason that it’s a bad book but because it’s a first-rate book marred for want of a ha’p’orth of tar.
Such a book is The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain: Volume VI, 1830–1914.
Ignoring, for the moment, its eligibility for the unsexiest title of the year, this is a volume whose contents publishing historians will regard as having near-Biblical authority.
The origins of CHBB6 are historically distant. Some thirty years ago there was a surge of excitement in the academic world about what was called ‘material bibliography’: publishing history. Books, it was suddenly realised, were not magicked up in the back room of Dillons or W H Smiths.
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
London's East End was long synonymous with poverty and sweatshops, while its West End was associated with glamour and high society. But when it came to the fashion industry, were the differences really so profound?
Sharman Kadish - Winkle-pickers & Bum Freezers
Sharman Kadish: Winkle-pickers & Bum Freezers - Fashion City: How Jewish Londoners Shaped Global Style; Fashion City: ...
literaryreview.co.uk
In 1982, Donald Rumsfeld presented Saddam Hussein with a pair of golden spurs. Two decades later he was dropping bunker-busting bombs on his palaces.
Where did the US-Iraqi relationship go wrong?
Rory Mccarthy - The Case of the Vanishing Missiles
Rory Mccarthy: The Case of the Vanishing Missiles - The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the United States and the ...
literaryreview.co.uk
Barbara Comyns was a dog breeder, a house painter, a piano restorer, a landlady... And a novelist.
@nclarke14 on the lengths 20th-century women writers had to go to make ends meet:
Norma Clarke - Her Family & Other Animals
Norma Clarke: Her Family & Other Animals - Barbara Comyns: A Savage Innocence by Avril Horner
literaryreview.co.uk