A Spy In The Bookshop; Letters Between Heywood Hill and John Saumerez Smith 1965–74

by Written and edited by John Saumarez Smith and Heywood Hill

• ISBN13: 9780711226982
• ISBN10: 0711226989
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2006-11-23
• Publisher: Frances Lincoln

Summary

Whilst compiling and editing "The Bookshop at 10 Curzon Street", described asa little gem' by the "Sunday Times", John Saumarez Smith discovered that oneide of that 'elegant and entertaining' ("Spectator") and 'thought provokingnd... laugh out loud' ("Country Life") correspondence, had been to someegree plagiarised from letters that he himself had sent to Heywood Hill,ormer owner of the shop. His own account of day to day life in one ofondon's best loved and most stylish bookshops had been used to flesh outill's glittering correspondence with Nancy Mitford who referred to him asthe spy in the bookshop'. So here is the real thing. This is a lively,larming and candid account of life behind the counter in a fashionable westnd bookshop, where all was most definitely not what it seemed, and whereeep passions and often irrational animosities flourished and occasionallyroke the surface, to the alarm of customers, staff and owners alike.;Witty,tylish and full of insights into literature, the book trade andiscellaneous human weaknesses, this correspondence between the new blood and