Books and Bookmen

 On Anecdotal Evidence today, Patrick Kurp says he would like to see the term 'bookman' resuscitated, without its fusty connotations. This reminded me that there was once a magazine called Books & Bookmen – and it was certainly anything but fusty. Published by the decidedly eccentric Philip Dossé, it was refreshingly outspoken, unpredictable and often vituperative, and I always enjoyed reading it. Books & Bookmen was one of a stable of titles published by Dossé's company, Hansom Books. Back in my long-ago library days, I had a colleague who wrote for Dance & Dancers, which made him something of a glamorous figure in my eyes, though he said he only did it for the free tickets (there certainly wasn't any money in writing for Dossé's titles). Books & Bookmen lasted from 1955 to 1986, and its principal ornament for some while was Auberon Waugh, who later took something of the Books & Bookmen spirit with him to Literary Review, the best magazine of its kind that we still have. 
  The special character of Books & Bookmen, and its publisher, is well caught in this piece by its last editor, the novelist Sally Emerson, and in this one, from The Oldie, by Michael Barber. Sadly, a magazine like Books & Bookmen could never be published now – even the name would give offence, let alone the contents. That was another age.