All the books illustrated in facsimile in this irresistible little volume were collected by Michael Bell when he owned an antiquarian bookshop in Lewes. His criterion was simple: these were old books that raised a grin if not a guffaw from his customers as soon as they saw them. Some are mystifying or bizarre or simply evoke a world which has long since vanished. But best represented of all are the titles, like Scouts in Bondage itself, that now suggest something quite at odds with the author's original intentions.
