Dearest Reader,
Books hold a unique magic. They are time travel and telepathy, escapism and truth, empathy and wonder. And that’s often just the stories inside. The objects themselves are pieces of history. So many hands have touched each and every book in the world, whether through writing, publishing, printing, reading, selling, collecting, restoring. They are part of our shared humanity and something that brings us all together. There are books in libraries around the world – these simple, fragile constructions of paper, skin and ink – that are older than civilisations.
Years ago, I came across an article about fragments of a lost manuscript discovered in the binding of another book. Down the rabbit hole of bookbinders and binder’s waste I went, and into the beginnings of this story. I found a wonderful video of a book restorer working on a copy of The Wizard of Oz. She wrote her signature on the paper backing of the spine then covered it up with the restored cover. Her name, her hand, was forever a part of the book. Her own piece of immortality, hidden beneath the binding. The idea of a book that contained secrets of the past became utterly irresistible to me.
It was an easy decision of where to set this story. Living in Oxford is like living in a slice of history. The city is a melting pot of the old and the new and is filled to the brim with secrets. The publishing history of the city is an intrinsic part of that. The university press has been in operation since 1586 and there is a pub nearby called The Old Bookbinders. Oxford and books go hand in hand.
Then of course I drew upon the books I loved reading. The Shadow of the Wind, The Book Thief, The Thirteenth Tale, Once Upon a River, The Club Dumas, Wuthering Heights, the Sherlock Holmes stories, Agatha Christie novels, and so many more.
So it was, one chilly Saturday in November, all these pieces fell into place and, fittingly, in a bookshop café, looking out over the bustle of St Giles in Oxford, I wrote the first lines of the story that would become The Bookbinder’s Secret.
This story is my love letter to books, and I truly hope you enjoy reading it.
-A. D. Bell
