The Bookseller's Tale

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

A lively cultural history of the book from a charmingly idiosyncratic bookseller.

'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 peddlers, 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.

Martin Latham has been a bookseller for thirty-five years. He has a PhD in Indian history, and taught at Hertfordshire University before turning to bookselling. He is proud to be responsible for the biggest petty-cash claim in Waterstones' history, when he paid for the excavation of a Roman bath-house floor under his bookshop. Martin's other books include Kent's Strangest Tales and Londonopolis.