Bibliomancy and Other Strange Stories is available as a signed, limited edition hardback and as an ebook.

 

Official publication 1st September 2026.

 

Hardback, printed lithographically, sewn sections, with silk ribbon marker, printed boards, and head and tailbands. Jacket. 369 pps.

First Tartarus Press hardback, signed limited to 300 copies.

ISBN 978-1-912586-77-6

£45.00 inc p&p

 

Ebook: £7.99

(Please note that the ebook will be sent manually, so there may be a short delay in receiving it.)

alternatively, buy ebook direct from Amazon UK and Amazon.com

Bibliomancy

and Other Essays

by

R.B. Russell

 

Books have a habit of leading us into unexpected places. . . .

 

In Bibliomancy and Other Essays, Russell explores the rich and curious world of books, book collecting and literary history, uncovering forgotten lives, neglected libraries and collectable bookplates, as well as unwritten biographies and imaginary autobiographies, and the peculiar possibilities of bibliomancy.

 

Erudite and entertaining, the subjects considered range from Arthur Machen to Charlotte Brontë, and from Barry Humphries to the almost forgotten Richard Rumbold.

 

Russell’s essays also consider odd pathways in book collecting, upgrading paperback editions, and the perfume of decaying books.

 

In an appendix to this volume, there are a series of essays considering different subjects close to the heart of the author Robert Aickman, and which may be considered supplements to Russell’s well-received biography of the author.

 

Contains: ‘Introduction: The Value of Collecting’, ‘A Biography I Have Not Written: The Life of Erich von Däniken’, ‘Collecting Just One Book’, ‘An Imaginary Autobiography’, ‘Death of a Bookseller’, ‘Little-Known Libraries’, ‘Arthur Machen’s Bookplate’, ‘Dr Carl Ku’an, M.D. (China)’, ‘Barry Humphries: Bibliophile and Collector’, ‘Odd Pathways in Book Collecting’, ‘Upgrading Paperback Editions’, ‘Five Timothys’, ‘Lady Leighton’, ‘The Sanctuary’, ‘On Publishing a Charlotte Brontë First Edition’, ‘Roget’s Thesaurus’, ‘The Last to Get the Joke’, ‘An Explanation for Almost Everything’, ‘A Telephone Box Library’, ‘Context is Everything’, ‘Painted Flight’, ‘The Perfume of Decay’, ‘I’ll Live All Tomorrow’, ‘The Biographer in the Post-Truth Age’, ‘Emily O’Neil Davies’, ‘The Dog at Clambercrown’, ‘Reading Nostradamus at Dusk’, ‘Richard Rumbold: Ambition, Flight and Failure’, ‘Drinking Tea on the Astral Plane’, ‘Bibliomancy’. The World of Robert Aickman: ‘Fathers and Sons, Aickman and Gosse’, ‘Worton Court’, ‘Bernard Heldmann and Richard Marsh’, ‘Edith Tyler (‘Eve’)’, ‘Conscientious Objection’, ‘Lord Alfred Douglas’, ‘The Tardebigge Myth’, ‘Ray Aickman’, ‘The Blue Light’, ‘Winifred Wagner’, ‘Gabriele D’Annunzio’, ‘Meum Stewart’, ‘A Curious Lack of Honours’, ‘Picnic at Hanging Rock’, ‘At the Barbican’, ‘Acknowledgements’