Description

A SPECTATOR AND EVENING STANDARD BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020

‘A joy. Each chapter instantly became my favourite’ David Mitchell, author of Cloud Atlas

‘Wonderful’ Lucy Mangan

‘The right book has a neverendingness, and so does the right bookshop.’

This is the story of our love affair with books, whether we arrange them on our shelves, inhale their smell, scrawl in their margins or just curl up with them in bed. Taking us on a journey through comfort reads, street book stalls, mythical libraries, itinerant pedlars, radical pamphleteers, extraordinary bookshop customers and fanatical collectors, Canterbury bookseller Martin Latham uncovers the curious history of our book obsession – and his own.

Part cultural history, part literary love letter and part reluctant memoir, this is the tale of one bookseller and many, many books.

‘If ferreting through bookshops is your idea of heaven, you’ll get the same pleasure from this treasure trove of a book’ Jake Kerridge, Sunday Express

Publisher Review

Martin Latham, who has sold [books] for more than 30 years, has done the tradition proud. His exploration of the history of books, and why we love them so much, is packed with touching stories and fascinating facts ... Underpinning the whole narrative is that simple pleasure, the love of a good book. -- Mark Mason * Daily Mail * Delightful ... a love letter to publishing. -- Jack Blackburn * The Times * A shared love of books creates a fellowship that transcends race, culture, gender, age and class. This book, written with wit, elegance and understanding, by one who knows what he is talking about, celebrates the abiding pleasure, nourishment and comradeship that books provide. -- Salley Vickers, author of The Librarian A celebration of reading and readers and all things bookish. Entertaining, erudite, eccentric - The Bookseller's Tale is a delight. -- Alison Light, author of Common People: The History of an English Family