Bodleianalia: my upcoming book!

I am very pleased and excited to announce that Bodleianalia: Curious Facts about Britain’s Oldest University Library a book I have been working on with Violet Moller will be out in October 2016!

Here is a blurb on the book:

Which is the smallest book in the Bodleian Library? Who complained when their secret pen name was revealed in the library’s catalogue? How many miles of shelving are there in the Book Storage Facility? What is the story behind the library’s refusal to lend a book to King Charles I? And, what is fasciculing? The answers to these questions and many more can be found inside this intriguing miscellaneous collection of curious facts and stories about the Bodleian Library in Oxford.

Home to more than 12 million books and a vast array of treasures including the Gutenberg bible, J.R.R. Tolkien’s hand-painted watercolours for The Hobbit, Shakespeare’s First Folio and four thirteenth-century copies of Magna Carta, the Bodleian Library is one of the most magnificent libraries in the world with a fascinating history.

Bodleianalia delights in uncovering some of the lesser known facts about Britain’s oldest university library. Through a combination of lists, statistics and bitesize nuggets of information, it reveals many of the quirks of fate, eccentric characters and remarkable events which have contributed to the making of this renowned institution. The perfect book for trivia-lovers and bibliophiles, it also offers readers a behind-the-scenes peek into the complex workings of a modern, world-class library in the twenty-first century.

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It was such a pleasure to work on this book and get such fantastic access to the amazing Bodleian Library and the people who work there. Over the past few months I have been trundling back and forth from Cambridge to Oxford (where happily my parents still reside) to visit the Bodleian and meet librarians, book conservators and keepers of the records to research Bodleianalia.

I hope the fruits of my research will make Bodleianalia an interesting read and that readers will share in my fascination with this august library and enjoy a glimpse behind the scenes.

Bodleianalia: Curious Facts about Britain’s Oldest University Library will be published in October 2016 by Bodleian Library Publishing.