Once upon a Tome: The Misadventures of a Rare Bookseller

The Misadventures of a Rare Bookseller

English language

Published March 14, 2023 by Norton & Company Limited, W. W..

ISBN:
978-1-324-09207-0
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5 stars (2 reviews)

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 (est. 1761) to apply for a job. Allured by the smell of old books and the temptation of a management-approved afternoon nap, Darkshire was soon unteetering stacks of first editions and placating the store’s resident ghost (the late Mr. Sotheran, hit by a tram).

A novice in this ancient, potentially haunted establishment, Darkshire describes Sotheran’s brushes with history (Dickens, the Titanic), its joyous disorganization, and the unspoken rules of its gleefully old-fashioned staff, whose mere glance may cause the computer to burst into flames. As Darkshire gains confidence and experience, he shares trivia about ancient editions and explores the …

3 editions

Review of 'Once upon a Tome' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

This was a bit left field for me. I had been following Sotheran's Twitter account for a while. Not because of an interest in rare, antique books but because it is pretty funny and random. When it popped up that the guy who does Twitter for them had also written a memoir I pre-ordered it on a whim. I am very glad I did, this was a delight.
This is a collection of funny vignette's that roughly follow the arc of the author's development from a scruffy apprentice to a, well, scruffy rare bookseller. It is funny, droll and told with a very light touch. It kind of jumps about in time but that works because of the somewhat timeless nature of a bookshop itself (this one has been going since the 1700's).
It is a very British book, a lot of of the humour comes from that Britishness. This …