'Glorious' EMMA THOMPSON'Delightful' PHILIP PULLMAN'Brilliant' JACQUELINE WILSONFrom a reed cut on the banks of the Nile to the Sharpie, the pen has been with us for millennia. And all of humanity – from our faintest notions to our wildest inventions, our gossip and legends, our grandest proclamations and most intimate confessions – has flowed from a quill, ink chamber or ballpoint tip. The pen is the enduring link be...

"A fascinating, informative and highly entertaining expedition through the highways and byways of dogdom." —John Bradshaw, New York Times bestselling author of Dog SenseA charming meditation on the relationship between humans and dogs, drawing upon history, science, art, and personal experience to illuminate a magical bond that has endured millennia—from the New York Times bestselling author of

A journey into the history of writing, thought, and culture through the story of the pen and its integral role in shaping our lives into the twenty-first century—from New York Times bestselling author Simon GarfieldThe pen has been with us for millennia. Many beloved authors had their preferred instruments—Jane Austen and Dickens wrote their novels with hundreds of quills, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Graham Greene favored a Parker Duofold, Ernest Hemingway ...

An obsessively readable memoir about the passions—and perils—of collecting, from the New York Times–bestselling author of Just My Type.From the Penny Red to the Blue Mauritius, generations of collectors have been drawn to the mystique of rare stamps. Once a widespread pastime of schoolboys, philately has increasingly become the province of older men obsessed with the shrewd investment, the once-in-a-lifetime find, the one elusive beauty that will ...

By the bestselling author of Just My Type: a "thoroughly enjoyable and illuminating" journey into the concept of time "stuffed with fascinating material" ( Observer, UK).Timekeepers is a book about our obsession with time and our desire to measure it, control it, sell it, film it, perform it, immortalize it and make it meaningful. In this fascinating, anecdotal exploration, award-winning author Simon Garfield has two simp...

A glorious gut-wrenching read . . . A Notable Woman makes my heart sing. Jean's diaries are a life in its entirety, in all its glorious mess" ( The Pool ).In April 1925, at the age of fifteen, Jean Lucey Pratt started a journal that she kept until just a few days before her death in 1986, producing over a million words in forty-five exercise books. What emerges is a portrait of a truly unique, sp...

A compact and charming history of the classic Enlightenment font by the New York Times best-selling author of Just My Type.When Baskerville was first created in 1757, there was concern that it would damage readers’ eyes with its combination of thin and thick strokes and tapering serifs. Yet 250 years later, it remains one of the most commonly used typefaces in books of all kinds. As best-selling author Simon Garfield tells it, the tale of this ele...

A compact and charming history of the beloved handcrafted font by the New York Times best-selling author of Just My Type.Albertus, first carved on a bronze tablet in the 1930s by German Jewish refugee Berthold Wolpe, has proved to be one of the most enduring handcrafted typefaces in the world. It is at once modern and timeless, authoritative and whimsical—renowned as the typeface of London Street signs, David Bowie albums, and Star Wars m...

A compact and charming history of the font we love to hate by the New York Times best-selling author of Just My Type.Since its improvised creation at Microsoft in the mid-1990s, Comic Sans has become one of the most used and talked-about typefaces of the digital age. The subject of April Fools pranks and endless internet discourse, it has spawned a movement to ban it, inspired revivals and spinoffs, and continues to be widely promoted by educators...

** With a new introduction by Russell T Davies **A new edition of the award-winning, ground-breaking account of the early AIDS crisis in Britain.'Masterful.' Jonathan Dean, Sunday Times'A remarkable journalistic achievement.' Time Out'Powerful . . . Indispensable.' Observer'Superb.' London Review of BooksWinner of the Somerset Maugham PrizeHow does ...

From the “deliriously clever” (Boston Globe) Simon Garfield, New York Times bestselling author of Just My Type, comesthe wild and fascinating story of the encyclopedia, from Ancient Greece to the present day.New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice"A brilliant book about knowledge itself.” —Deirdre Mask, author of The Address Book**“Garfield’s witty history captures the...

AS HEARD ON RADIO 4'Utterly wonderful' NINA STIBBE, author of Love, NinaTwenty hours have gone since I last wrote. I have been thinking of you. I shall think of you until I post this, and until you get it. Can you feel, as you read these words, that I am thinking of you now; aglow, alive, alert at the thought that you are in the same world, and by some strange chance loving me.In September 1943, Chris Barker was se...