Still looking for those Christmas gifts? Well, of course I hope you'll be stocking up with lots of copies of Miss Winter in the Library with a Knife! The ideal present, I'd say 😉But there are plenty of other good options and today I want to talk about more of the books published by the British Library.
Let's start with a book that I'm involved with, the new special edition of Mystery in White by J. Jefferson Farjeon, which was such a massive bestseller when it was reissued way back in 2014. I've written a new intro for this edition and in this, I make special mention of Rob Davies, who not only had the idea of reprinting this book but was also the man who came up with the brilliant idea of using railway poster artwork for the covers of the Crime Classics.
Anyone who has read Miss Winter will know that I love games, and so I was naturally attracted to Caroline Taggart's The Philosophy of Board Games. There's not actually much philosophy in this one; rather, it's a short and delightfully illustrated overview of the history of board games, an introduction to the subject, rather than an in-depth study, but a good stocking-filler.
Land of Mist and Magic by Philip Parker is a meaty, but concisely written, account of 'the myths and legends that shaped Britain' - everything from stories about Joseph of Arimathea, through Hereward the Wake and Robin Hood, to Lady Godiva, plus many more. A pleasing compendium.
And finally, Secret Maps, the book of the current British Library exhibition, again showcases the Library's brilliance when it comes not only to producing interesting books but also to illustrating them superbly. The compilers, Tom Harper, Nick Dykes, and Magdalena Peszko, all of whom are curators at the Library, have done a great job.
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