About the Author

John Sutherland is Professor of Modern English Literature at University College London and a visiting professor at the California Institute of Technology. He has published twenty books and writes a weekly column for the Guardian. He was chairman of the 2005 Man Booker Prize for Fiction.

Reviews

a fascinating brief sociological history of the literary industry
*New Statesman*

Entertaining
*The Spectator*

an amiable stroll... there's much enjoyment to be had from the author's examination of everything...
*Sunday Times*

enlightening stuff
*Daily Mail*