Mysterious Manuscripts, Black Bookstores, and Literary London: New Books Roundup

Our ongoing look at new books that have recently caught the eye of our print and online editors this month.

Cryptic: From Voynich to the Angel Diaries, the Story of the World's Mysterious Manuscripts by Garry J. Shaw

An examination of nine puzzling European texts including, naturally, the Voynich, and why writes have used codes and secret scripts over the centuries. Also features Hildegard of Bingen's special mystical alphabet, physician Giovanni Fontana, and John Dee. From Yale University Press.

Archival Communities: Constructing the Past in the Early United States by Derek Kane O'Leary

A subject very much in the news today, this is the story of how the U.S. created its earliest archives, who took the decisions, what and why was included and not included, and at every level from local to international. From the University of Virginia Press. 

Prose to the People: A Celebration of Black Bookstores by Katie Mitchell

Published by Clarkson Potter, this is a photographic survey of more than 50 Black bookstores from around the country plus essays and poetry about the importance of these spaces to the local communities where they are located. 

The Book of Trolls by Carolyne Larrington

A short and richly illustrated guide from the emerita professort of medieval literature at the University of Oxford, who has previously produced intriguing analysis of the Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire series. This volume looks at the history of the original Scandinavian and Icelandic trolls and how they continue to play a part in our lives today. Illustrators featured include Theodor Kittelsen, John Bauer and Erik Werenskiold. From the British Library who will publish Larrington's The Little Book of Dragons in September.

A Book of Ryhmes by Charlotte Brontë

Nearly 200 years since the then 13-year-old Charlotte Brontë handwrote her miniature book in Decembe 1829, A Book of Ryhmes [sic] has been published for the first time by The Brontë Society and Tartarus Press, an anthology of 10 transcibed poems (including The Beauty of Nature and On Seeing the Ruins of the Tower of Babel) with a foreword by singer Patti Smith. The original manuscript was bought by the Friends of the National Libraries  in 2022 at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair and donated to the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth where it was originally written.

Literary London: An Opinionated Guide to Literary London by John Clegg

This installment of Hoxton Mini Press's ongoing opinionated guide series looks at writers, libraries and bookshops in the Engish capital including the pub where Sylvia Plath signed the contract for her first poetry collection.

The Scenic Daguerreotype in America 1840-1860 by Allen Phillips and Grant B. Romer

Published by Paul Holberton Publishing to accompany the first museum exhibition of scenic daguerreotypes  at the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford CT, this catalogue features a private collection of extremely rare outdoor views in mid-19th century America using rare scenic daguerreotypes of everyday rural and urban scenes almost entirely drawn from the private collection of American collector Greg French. 

Kew: The Apothecary's Garden: The science and mythology of medicinal plants by Emma Wayland

Published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, where Wayland has been a guide for many years, this is a marvellous dive into the ancient roots of botanical healing, focusing on more than 60 species at the heart of folk remedies and their scientific bona fides. Featuring many woodcuts, engravings, and literary references from Virgil’s recipe for cheese spread with rue to Popeye and The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Best read in conjunction with Wayland's The Botanists' Library: The most important botanical books in history which came out last year.

Action without Hope: Victorian Literature after Climate Collapse by Nathan K. Hensley

Hensley's study of how the likes of George Eliot in Middlemarch, Emily Brontë, and Gerard Manley Hopkins dealth with growing industrialisation and the coming of climate change. From University of Chicago Press

Astonishing Things: The Drawings of Victor Hugo by Gérard Audinet, Thomas Cazentre, Sarah Lea, and Rose Thompson

Published by the Royal Academy of Arts alongside its recent exhibition of French 19th century novelist and poet Hugo's artwork, featuring a selection of the thousands of ink-and-wash works he produced of landscapes and abstracts.

Clara Istlerová: A Life Among Letters by Anezka Minarikova (editor) and Nathan Fields (trans)

The first U.S. publication about Czech designer Clara Istlerová (1944 - ), one of the few women in the male-dominated field of Czech typography. From Inventory Press.

After Words: Visual and Experimental Poetry in Little Magazines and Small Presses, 1960–2025

Published by Granary Books and serving as an exhibition catalog for The Grolier Club exhibition this year.

A Hundred Years of Bibliotherapy: Healing through Books edited by Siobhan Campbell, Sara Haslam, and Edmund G. C. King

A history of the medicinal powers of reading and books as 'cures' from World War I onwards featuring John Galsworthy, war hospitals, autograph books, trench magazines, and bibliotherapy strategies.