Hazel Jane Raines, pioneer lady of flight

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Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone

"Larry and Nancy Goldstone, accompanied by their wise and witty eight-year-old daughter, Emily, treat their readers to a fabulous personal tour of the Library of Congress ("114,000,000 books, so little time"). They also entertain us with unorthodox behind-the-scences looks at the Folger Library and the Beinecke, Yale University's Rare Book and Manuscript Library." "Forgeries, famous and otherwise, feature largely among the tidbits of arcane booklore that the Goldstones share with their readers this time around. The clever detective work that led to the uncovering of the infamous New England forger is recounted in all its facinating detail, as is the case of the murderous Mormon. Fans of The Antiques Roadshow will find here an amusing bibliographic counterpart." "Intended for those readers who already know a lot about books but want to learn more, Warmly Inscribed is the perfect gift for the book lover in your life."--Jacket.

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John Baxter

In the rural Australia of the fifties where John Baxter grew up, reading books was disregarded with suspicion, owning and collecting them with utter incomprehension. Despite this, by the age of eleven Baxter had 'collected' his first book - The Poems of Rupert Brooke. He'd read the volume often, but now he had to own it. This was the beginning of what would become a major collection and a lifelong obsession. His book-hunting would take him all over the world, but his first real find was in London in 1978, when he spotted a rare copy of a Graham Greene children's book while browsing on a stall in Swiss Cottage. It was going for 5 pence. This would also, fortuitously, be the day when he first encountered one of the legends of the book-selling world: Martin Stone. At various times pothead, international fugitive from justice, and professional rock musician, he would become John's mentor and friend. In this brilliantly readable and funny book, John Baxter brings us into contact with such literary greats as Graham Greene, Kingsley Amis, J.G. Ballard and Ray Bradbury. But he also shows us how he penetrated the secret fraternity of 'runners' or book scouts - sleuths who use bluff and guile to hunt down their quarry - and joined them in scouring junk shops, markets, auction rooms and private homes for rarities. In the comic tradition of Clive James's Unreliable Memoirs, A Pound of Paper describes how a boy from the bush came to be living in a Paris penthouse with a library worth millions. It also explores the exploding market in first editions. What treasures are lying unnoticed in your garage?

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George MacDonald Fraser

From the author of the ever-popular Flashman novels, a collection of film-world reminiscences and trenchant thoughts on Cool Britannia, New Labour and other abominations. In between writing Flashman novels, George MacDonald Fraser spent thirty years as an "incurably star struck" screenwriter, working with the likes of Steve McQueen, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Cubby Broccoli, Burt Lancaster, Federico Fellini and Oliver Reed. Now he shares his recollections of those encounters, providing a fascinating glimpse behind the scenes. Far from starry-eyed where Tony Blair & Co are concerned, he looks back also to the Britain of his youth and castigates those responsible for its decline to "a Third World country ... misruled by a typical Third World government, corrupt, incompetent and undemocratic". Controversial, witty and revealing – or "curmudgeonly", "reactionary", "undiluted spleen", according to the critics – The Light's on at Signpost has struck a chord with a great section of the public. Perhaps, as one reader suggests, it should be "hidden beneath the floorboards, before the Politically-Correct Thought Police come hammering at the door, demanding to confiscate any copies".

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Frank Kermode

Frank Kermode has been known for decades as one of the great critics of English literature. Now his subtly nuanced attention turns to a different kind of text: the experiences of his own life. Throughout his luminous, witty memoir, Kermode touches on deeper, lighter, ineffable issues of autobiography, and he does so with his characteristic grace and precision. In Not Entitled, the miraculous connections between life and literature, between the world and the word, are transformed and ennobled.