Alexander Waugh

Nightmare on Grub Street

On 5 March a million books are to be given away for free under the banner of a celebrity-endorsed charity calling itself World Book Night. The participating publishers will each deliver several palette-loads of books to drop-off points across the country, whence 20,000 volunteer ‘givers’ are expected to collect forty-eight copies each and distribute them to their friends. Or they’ll not bother to do that and try to sell them on eBay instead. Or they’ll mean to give them away but get bored and irritated and just throw them in the bin. A further 40,000 copies are to be distributed by members of World Book Night staff in prisons, hospitals and places ‘that might otherwise be difficult to reach’.

Sign Up to our newsletter

Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.

Follow Literary Review on Twitter

  • Last Tweets

    • The author 'seethes with contemptuous indignation at the shiny junk that an unregulated construction industry dumps… ,
    • 'The physical courage he demonstrated as a young man [...] gave way to intellectual power; radical thought, gifted… ,
    • 'While Jane Austen didn’t perhaps achieve the full recognition that she deserved in her lifetime, even then she out… ,
    • 'All I have is a voice To undo the folded lie, The romantic lie in the brain Of the sensual man-in-the-street And t… ,
    • 'You are interested in a particular subject; basic research hardens this interest into an obsession, after which th… ,
    • 'Keynes predicted that future generations would enjoy such an improved standard of living that they might work just… ,
    • 'Various dislocations ... emerge, iceberg-like, out of a troubled sea of unconscious motivation and confront Eisenb… ,
    Follow Us