This edition, which I became really keen to get my hands on when I saw the lineup of books covered in the synopsis turned out to be a real treat and one of my favourite issues thus far. Definitely a keeper I will return to for a spot of comfort reading.

There's 'Anarchist in a Tie' by Michael Barber, an article about the books of Eric Ambler, whom I discovered in the past couple of years thanks to The Folio Society with The Mask of Dimitrios and then several audiobooks like The Light of Day and Epitaph for a Spy (both highly recommended). Of course the article only makes me want to finally pick up my Folio Dimitrios and several other audiobooks and keep going with Ambler.

A discovery: The Education of H*y*m*a*nK*a*p*l*a*n, out of print but surely obtainable via Abe, a hilarious sounding book from 1937 about the travails of a Jewish immigrant who seems determined to remain impervious to his English teacher, the long-suffering Mr Parkhill's lesson's: 'How much will cost refrigimator?' writes Mr Kaplan in a business letter assignment which he has chosen to address to his uncle Hymie. 'Is axspensif, maybe by you is more cheap a little. But must not have short circus. If your eye falls on a bargain please pick it up.'

'A Very Rising Man' by Roger Hudson, which finally got me truly interested in reading The Complete Diary of Samuel Pepys, which may be a lifetime project considering it is 11 volumes in length in the unexpurgated version. Roger Hudson, according to his brief bio, worked for many years at John Murray, the firm that had the chance of publishing Pepys in the 1820s but turned it down.

'Divine Spark' by Emma Hogan is about one of my great favourites, Dame Muriel Spark and covers her brilliant Memento Mori which I believe I am due to reread as well as her Curriculum Vitae, which I haven't yet had the pleasure of discovering—what joy awaits!

Who doesn't love 84 Charing Cross Road? Maggie Fergusson tells us how she discovered that book in 'We All Love Your Letters...' and now I feel sure a book could be written about how various writers came to discover that particular epistolary jewel.

'Plain Jane? Plain Wrong' by Daisy Hay is about another reader favourite, Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, in which she tries to explain why contrary to Mark Twain and Charlotte Brontë, she thinks it is the perfect English novel. ( )