Orwell on Jura, Katherine Mansfield, and Haunted Libraries: December Books Roundup

Our ongoing look at new books that have recently caught the eye of our print and online editors this month. Our Best of 2025 selections will be published on December 19.

An Extremely Un-Get-Atable Place by Craig Easton

Orwell's own description of the Scottish island of Jura on which he wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four is an apt title for this excellent book of evocative images by awardwinning photographer Craig Easton who focuses on the author's remote farmhouse, Barnhill. Also included are extracts from Orwell’s letters and diaries written on the island between 1946 and 1949, and an afterword by his son Richard Blair. Easton printed the negatives as silver gelatin prints then toned them in Orwell's favorite drink, tea. Published by Gost Books.

Black-Owned: The Revolutionary Life of the Black Bookstore by Char Adams

Published by Tiny Reparations Books, this looks at Black political movements from the perspective of Black-owned bookstores, their history and role in community activism, featuring Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou and modern writers such as rapper Noname.

Katherine Mansfield: A Hidden Life by Gerri Kimber

A new biography of the New Zealand short story writer and poet who was a key figure in London's early 20th century literary scene before her early death aged 34 in 1923. Kimber's own new research about Mansfield's relationships and friendships is a welcome addition to understanding her life. From Reaktion Books

In Flaming Letters: Lucia Pitts, Poet of the Six Triple Eight edited by Verner D. Mitchell and Cynthia Davis

African American writer Pitts (1904–1973) is best known for her poetry which she debuted during the Harlem Renaissance. While this volume includes 100 of her poems, it is also the first attempt to chronicle her service from 1943 with the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion which ws the Army’s only all-Black, all-female battalion, including her own unpublished military memoir. From the University of Virginia Press.

Hans Sloane’s Library Collection and the Production of Knowledge by Alice Wickenden

Hans Sloane owned 50,000 volumes of books and manuscripts when he died in 1753, a collection which became the foundation of the British Library and British Museum. Wickenden looks at the history of the collection itself as well as archival practices, using illustrative case studies, and tackling important questions about the nature of books, collecting, and libraries themselves. Published by Cambridge University Press.
 
Enchanted Wood: Engraving a Place for Women Artists in Rural Britain by Kristin Bluemel

Artists Gwen Raverat, Agnes Miller Parker, Clare Leighton, and Joan Hassall are at the centre of this survey by Bluemel (Professor of English at Monmouth University) of women engravers in the 20th century and their contribution to modern art. Published by University of Minnesota Press.

A Third Book of Booksellers: Conversations with the Antiquarian Book Trade by Sheila Markham

Markham's highly popular ongoing conversations with booksellers and collectors goes into a third volume, here with an Introduction by Bodley's Librarian at the University of Oxford Richard Ovenden. This first edition is limited to 500 copies. Published by Bernard Quaritch. An interview with Markham appears in the new Winter issue of Fine Books & Collections.

The Haunted Library: Tales of Cursed Books and Forbidden Shelves edited by Tanya Kirk

More than a dozen tales from the likes of M. R. James, L. P. Hartely, and Margaret Irwin as well as pulp magazines lead the way in the British Library's ongoing project of publishing interesting and often neglected stories from the past.