Presented in chronological order, 50 short chapters each ruminating on the back story to famous – and some less famous - books and their titles. Over the book you gain insight into the authors and their lives and work. There’s a great deal of “I didn’t know that” to the stories Gary Dexter recounts and there’s much real pleasure to be had from his literary detective work that will add immeasurably to anyone’s reading pleasure.

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Why Not Catch-21?: The Stories behind the Titles, Gary Dexter
Curiosities of Literature: A Book Lover’s Anthology of Literary Erudition, John Sutherland

Synopsis

Here we learn the real reasons for such unusual pieces of nomenclature as Douglas Coupland’s Generation X, Ian Fleming’s Goldfinger, Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest and Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. (This last was originally titled Alice’s Adventures Underground, but changed due to the publisher’s worry that potential buyers would think it was about child labour in the mines.)

Full to the brim with myth-busting tidbits for the bookish boffin and throwing light into many unexplored corners of literary history, this is a must-have for bibliophiles and aspiring writers young, middling and old. Based on the immensely popular Sunday Telegraph column of literary anecdotage, Gary Dexter reveals the intriguing stories behind some of history’s most celebrated books.

Reviews

‘Dexter’s gift is not only to uncover the stories behind the titles, but actually to shed light on the mysteries of literary creation’ Guardian

About the Author

Gary Dexter is a multi-talented newspaper columnist whose examinations into the lives and work of the literati have appeared in The Spectator, The Times, The Guardian, The Sunday Telegraph and The Erotic Review. More books by this author Author 'Like for Like' recommendation