Rupert Hart-Davis was a general publisher, but one more influenced by scholarship than by dictatorship from accountants and computers. One of his many excellent series was the Soho Bibliographies. This is now published by Oxford, and the revision of the Virginia Woolf volume reveals so much that it is exceptional value.

By its accumulation of details scholarship assists the general reader. A day's toil through a run of musty back issues ·may reveal one forgotten item; Ms Kirkpatrick's toils – some conducted at long distance from Australia – will not be regretted. Her industry is matched only by Virginia Woolf's. The