Once Upon a Tome: The misadventures of a rare bookseller

Sotheran's is one of the oldest bookshops in the world, with its weird and wonderful clientele, suspicious cupboards, unlabeled keys, poisoned books, and some things that aren't even books. Oliver Darkshire stepped into the store to interview for a bookselling apprenticeship, but the alluring smell of old books and the temptation of a management-approved afternoon nap proved irresistible. The book is a love letter to the benign, unruly world of antiquarian bookselling, where to be uncommon or strange is the best possible compliment.

Format: Hardback
Length: 256 pages
Publication date: 06 October 2022
Publisher: Transworld Publishers Ltd

Welcome to Sotheran's, one of the oldest bookshops in the world, with its weird and wonderful clientele, suspicious cupboards, unlabeled keys, poisoned books, and some things that aren't even books, presided over by one deeply eccentric apprentice. Some years ago, Oliver Darkshire stepped into the hushed interior of Henry Sotheran Ltd on Sackville Street (est. 1761) to interview for their bookselling apprenticeship, a decision that has bedevilled him ever since. He'd intended to stay for a year before launching into some less dusty, better-remunerated career. Unfortunately for him, the alluring smell of old books and the temptation of a management-approved afternoon nap proved irresistible. Soon he was balancing teetering stacks of first editions, fending off nonagenarian widows with a ten-foot pole, and trying not to upset the store's resident ghost (the late Mr. Sotheran had unfinished business when he was hit by that tram). For while Sotheran's might be a treasure trove of literary delights, it sings a siren song to eccentrics. There are not only colleagues whose tastes in rare items range from the inspired to the mildly dangerous, but also zealous collectors seeking knowledge, curios, or simply someone with whom to hold a four-hour conversation about books bound in human skin. By turns unhinged and earnestly dog-eared, Once Upon a Tome is the rather colorful story of life in one of the world's oldest bookshops and a love letter to the benign, unruly world of book collecting.

Weight: 372g
Dimension: 145 x 223 x 28 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781787636040