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Rogues, Widows and Orphans
Mischief and Misadventures in the World of Books
Brief Description
Word nerds, assemble! This is the book for us - LUCY MANGAN Devilishly funny and clever, this divine comedy of literary errors will remind you why words are such glorious, untameable things - LOUISE WILLDER It's a long journey from a writer's mind to a finished...
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See moreAn entertaining romp through bookish mishaps, exposing all the weird, wow! and wtf? moments that the literary world has to offer
An entertaining romp through bookish mishaps, exposing all the weird, wow! and wtf? moments that the literary world has to offer
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Description
Word nerds, assemble! This is the book for us - LUCY MANGAN
Devilishly funny and clever, this divine comedy of literary errors will remind you why words are such glorious, untameable things - LOUISE WILLDER
It's a long journey from a writer's mind to a finished book - and a lot needs to go right along the way. But isn't it more interesting when things go wrong? With an expert Penguin editor as your guide, dive into the dark-side of the book world: a secret history fizzing with scandals, rivalries, cock-ups and con jobs.
We'll discover how the tiniest of typos can have oversized consequences, unearth horrifying examples of bad taste and worse style, and peek into tales of forgeries and feuds as dramatic as any thriller. We'll unredact the most egregious cases of censorship, expose hoarders and thieves, and ask: after centuries of man-made mischief, can the humble book survive the new machine age?
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781805221180
Publisher: Profile Books Ltd
Format: Hardback
Date Published: 23 April 2026
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Profile Books Ltd
Edition: Main
Audience: General / adult, Tertiary education, Professional and scholarly
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 32.0mm
Width: 140.0mm
Height: 220.0mm
Weight: 409g
Pages: 304
About the Author
Rebecca Lee is a senior editorial manager at Penguin Random House. She's spent twenty years wrangling hundreds of books from copyedit to finished copies, and among the millions of words she's sent to print, she's overseen her fair share of mishaps. She is author of the 'masterpiece' (Daily Mail) How Words Get Good.
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