A shrewd look at the history of transmission, book usage and the after-life of books, this well researched reference brings book history and literary criticism into conversation with each other. It is a rich account of the ways in which novels and other printed artifacts were read, handled and circulated and is a compelling reading of 19th century print culture by a leading book historian, librarian and reader. She is very entertaining on men's use of newspapers to create little zones of domestic privacy and has brilliant things to say about what Victorians did with their bookish things. She describes how men read newspapers to learn world events while women read novels that kept them away from their daily chores, about the economic and social status of owning, reading or reciting books, and how printed paper was mostly thrown away as she contrasts the journeys of novels, tracts, fictional propogandists and real people. She asks how our culture came to frown on using books for any purpose other than reading. When did the coffee-table book become an object of scorn? Why did law courts forbid witnesses to kiss the Bible? What made Victorian cartoonists mock commuters who hid behind the newspaper, ladies who matched their books' binding to their dress, and servants who reduced newspapers to wrap fish 'n' chips wrap? Shedding new light on novels by Thackeray, Dickens, the Brontes, Trollope and Collins, as well as the urban sociology of Henry Mayhew, Price also uncovers the lives and afterlives of anonymous religious tracts and household manuals. Whether displayed, defaced, exchanged or discarded, printed matter continues to participate in a range of transactions that stretches far beyond reading. 350pp.

Julius Caesar tried to destroy Alexandria with only partial success, and the city famed for its cosmopolitan intellectual life has weathered many cultural changes since its foundation by Alexander the Great. This anthology starts with the ancient writer Plutarch describing the city's foundation and concludes with atmospheric pieces from the 20th century in which Jean Cocteau regrets that the city is losing its character following World War II and Naguib Mahfouz describes love and loss on returning to his homeland. Alexandria's fame in the ancient world was associated with the Lighthouse of Pharos, and when the Arabs captured the city in AD 642 the country's centre moved to Cairo. In 1183 Ibn Jubayr praised the city's beautiful structures, commenting like many others on the subterranean system of wells and watercourses that harvested water from the Nile to supply the population in times of drought. The Turkish invasion of 1517 turned the country into a backwater of the Ottoman Empire and building materials were taken from Alexandria to Cairo. In the 18th century the traveller James Bruce commented that Cleopatra would not recognise her own city. Conquest by Napoleon was followed by the rule of Mohammed Ali and a big building programme. 19th century travellers include Florence Nightingale and Mark Twain, while 20th century Alexandria attracted E. M. Forster, Constantine Cavafy, and Noel Coward, who scandalised the Yacht Club by wearing shorts. An entertaining and informative pocket anthology. Designed on cream paper stock and beautifully illustrated with line drawings and archival photographs. 158pp.

Cairo became a leading city of Egypt in the medieval period as power shifted away from Alexandria, with a history encompassing the Pharaonic, Early Christian, Arabic, Medieval and Modern. In the early 19th century tourism began to dominate Cairo's economy and this fascinating pocket anthology covers the past 200 years which saw a huge surge in travel writing. The Citadel is one of the glories of the country, celebrated as much as the Pyramids which stand on the opposite bank. Harriet Martineau in the mid 19th century wrote that "in the evening the beauty is beyond description", and as a social reformer she is impressed that the mosques are home to the "houseless poor". Florence Nightingale comments that the view from the Mosque built by the ruler Muhammad Ali is the finest in the world, but almost a century later Baedeker's Guide remarks that the city looks yellowish grey from there, possibly enveloped in a haze. The bazaars and streets of the city are irregular and Murray's 1897 handbook encourages the visitor to regard this in a romantic light, while Lady Lucie Duff Gordon invokes the Arabian Nights. In 1834 Alexander Kinglake visited the slave market, although the trade was in the process of being outlawed. The Pyramids are introduced by the ancient writer Herodotus, and they prompt Lord Byron to muse "what are the hopes of man?". Novelist Norma Lorimer writes that on the road to the Pyramids "you will find the most extraordinary mixture of ancient and modern life Designed on cream paper stock and beautifully illustrated with line drawings and archival photographs. 150pp.

A modern Arabic literature classic, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature here beautifully and simply translated, a multi-generational saga. Mahfouz was born in Cairo in 1911 and was a student of philosophy influenced by many western writers and he has more than 30 novels to his credit. This novel goes deep back in time to track the route of Ashur al-Nagi's family through Egyptian history as we live a dream with whirling dervishes, belly dancers, falling dreams, bullies in the neighbourhood alley, complex family relationships, genies and sheikhs. The saga of the al-Nagi family moves at a brisk pace as they go from deeply poor to suddenly rich in a magical and picaresque novel weaving complex stories of teeming life in the back alleys of Cairo. The epic story is the tale of Ashur al-Nagi, who grows from his humble roots to become a great leader and legend among his people, epitomising a time of glory for the harafish or common people when they were led by one of their own. Generations later his descendants stray further from his legendary example. They lose touch with their origins as they amass and then lose large fortunes, marry prostitutes when they marry at all, and develop rivalries that end in death. Finally, a Nagi appears to restore the family name to its former distinction. A funny, colourful and sexy tale. 380pp in large softback.

A companion to The Harafish code 94875 and another in the modern Arabic literature series by the winner of the Nobel Prize. Set in 1942, the Second World War is at its height, and the Africa Campaign is raging along the northern coast of Egypt as far as El Alamein. The novel tells the story of the Akifs, a middle-class family who has taken refuge in Cairo's historic and bustling Khan al-Khalili neighbourhood. Believing that the German forces will never bomb such a famously religious part of the city, they seek safety among the crowded alleyways, busy cafés, and ancient mosques of the Khan. Through the eyes of the eldest child Ahmad, a minor civil servant who has sacrificed both education and personal ambition to support his family, we see the people and traditions of the Khan. A debate emerges that pits old against new, history against modernity, and faith against secularism. Expertly translated, 306pp in large softback.

Egypt is the gift of the Nile, as ancient writers observed, and the rising of the Nile was a life-giving event for the people of ancient Egypt who depended on its water. For the Arab traveller Ebn Haukal in the 10th century, Egypt was mysterious territory, and the source of the crocodile-infested Nile was a great unknown. Ten centuries later, a visitor in 1910 describes the men who work the shadufs that supply water as having "muscles that work like metal bands". Most of the descriptions in this fascinating pocket-sized book come from the 19th and 20th centuries. In 1873 Amelia Edwards travelled up the Nile on a Dahabiya, which she describes as being like an "Oxford University barge". The women have their own cabin deck and there is a general sitting room with space for the men's guns and women's hats. Making a similar journey, Florence Nightingale describes the effect of a sandstorm with visibility at nil and danger of collision. Prince Puckler-Muskau is impressed by the Temple at Luxor and in 1930 Princess Marta Bibescu remembers the perfume of mimosa as she is entertained to a lavish dinner on a high terrace, to the accompaniment of music from a phonograph. Veteran travel writer H. V. Morton describes the "grim and desolate" approach to the Valley of the Kings by donkey in earlier times, and other famous travellers including Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle comment on the magnificent engineering of the Aswan Dam. Designed on cream paper stock and beautifully illustrated with line drawings and archival photographs. 152pp.

By the author of Nineteen Eighty-Four, here is a lyrically written and darkly humorous masterpiece of fiction which remains as relevant today as when it was first published in 1936. Gordon Comstock is a man in thrall to his principals. He believes that money lies at the heart of all society's evils, so he decides to trade in his well paid job at an advertising agency for the humble wages of a bookshop assistant. As poverty strikes, he finds that it infects every element of his life. His poetry lies neglected, his relationships with his friend Ravelston and his girlfriend Rosemary suffer, and bitterness threatens to overwhelm him. He is in a one-man war against the 'money-God', much to the dismay of his peers, unhappily accepting every sacrifice it demands of him. Drawn from Orwell's own experiences, the novel exposes the dangers of capitalist society. The deserves a wider audience. 284pp, new full price paperback.

Officially entitled 'Manifesto of a Communist Party', an 1848 political manifesto by German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, this originally laid out the programme of the Communist League. It presents an analytical approach to the class struggle (historical and present) and the problems of capitalism and the capitalist mode of production, rather than a prediction of Communism's potential future forms. It contains their theories about the nature of society and politics, and briefly features ideas for how the capitalist society of the time would eventually be replaced by socialism, and then finally Communism. A bestselling classic that belongs in everyone's library, this beautifully designed illustrated edition includes an Introduction describing the pamphlet's enduring relevance to the tumultuous landscape of modern politics. English translation, with hundreds of colourful images. 160pp, 10.5 x 17.15cm.

The movie Cats was based on the musical inspired by these wonderful and much-loved cat poems by T. S. Eliot, and this edition, illustrated with lovely monochrome drawings, introduces the reader once again to the Bravo Cat Growltiger, the extremely ancient Old Deuteronomy and the Mystery Cat Macavity ("he's called the Hidden Paw"), together with a dozen other colourful figures both enterprising and deplorable. Growltiger, the "roughest cat that ever roamed at large", together with his bucko mate Rumbuskin, terrifies the people from Rotherhithe to Hammersmith but is captured as he serenades the faithless Lady Griddlebone. The Rum Tum Tugger is one of these contrarian characters who always wants what he can't have, in contrast with the jolly Jellicle Cats who just live to dance at the Jellicle Ball. The cat-burglars Mungojerrie and Rumpelteaser need no introduction, while we all know that if a treaty goes missing from the Foreign Office it's certain that the "master-criminal" Macavity, the monster of depravity, will be nowhere near the scene. Bustopher Jones with his white spats is the quintessential cat about town, and the 11.42 Night Mail can never depart without making sure that lovable Skimbleshanks the railway cat is safely on board. 118pp, paperback, black and white drawings.

Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963) was one of the intellectual giants of the 20th century and arguably one of the most influential writers of his day. He was a Fellow and Tutor in English Literature at Oxford University until 1954, when he was unanimously elected to the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance English at Cambridge University, a position he held until his retirement. To date his Narnia books have sold over 100 million copies. The revered professor in this huge tome offers a magisterial take on the literature and poetry (excluding drama) written during one of the most consequential periods in world history and the rise of English Literature. In his classic survey he provides deep insight into the greatest of the 16th century writers, including: Edmund Spenser, William Shakespeare, William Tyndale, John Knox, Dr Johnson, Richard Hooker, Hugh Latimer, Christopher Marlowe, John Donne, Thomas Cramner and many more. It is a wise and distinctive collection in which Lewis expounds on the profound impact prose and poetry have had on both British intellectual life and his own critical writing and thinking. As readers we obtain an invigorating overview from the Norman Conquest through the mid 17th century and you feel reading this that he has read every book he is writing about. He makes a principle of telling us which authors he thinks we will enjoy as he invites us to a literary feast and a realm of discovery and enjoyment. He writes 'with astonishing freshness on subjects which might be thought to be exhausted.' - the New Statesman. He even includes 'bad books'. Spenser's Faerie Queene draws on masque, pageants, tapestry, carvings, tournaments and the whole panoply of the court. Shakespeare's sonnets are the heart of the Golden Age, and for Lewis they tell a story of a young man's passion both for another man and also for a fickle woman. 744 pages.