here is my question: in the phrase "burning the candle at both ends", the ends are the end of the night and the end of the evening, rather than the ends of the candle, aren't they? but how on earth did the first user of the phrase get that across?

This week's bestsellers! www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/booklists/ou...

In his Winter Lecture on 30 Jan, Seamus Perry will consider the ways in which modern poets have responded to the demands of pluralism, and whether Auden was right in thinking that a poem that exemplified pluralist values would be ‘utterly boring’. Tickets here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/lrb-winter...

always seems a shame to me that elizabeth taylor and anne tyler are so far apart on the shelves, one at the beginning of the t's and one at the end. of course it is alphabetical order doing its thing but i still think those two names are very close and that ought to be acknowledged, somehow

YA romance about an elite warrior in feudal japan, whose life is transformed when he gets a makeover. "the samurai turned pretty"

New on the blog: Read an extract from @joseando1007.bsky.social’s debut novel, JACKSON ALONE, translated from Japanese by Kalau Almony. Read here: www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/blog/2026/ja...

"use the full length of the platform" is not an instruction you can personally put into practice, unless you are an anaconda, in which case you should not be on the piccadilly line for other reasons

On the latest Bookshop podcast, three contributors to ​VITTLES ISSUE 1 – Robin Craig, @amykey.bsky.social and Waithera Sebatindira – discuss what it means to write about food as a non-food writer with @vittles.bsky.social editor Odhran O’Donoghue. Listen here: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/l...

We're delighted this evening to welcome Juliet Mitchell to discuss her life and work with Frances Morris and to celebrate the republication of her groundbreaking 1974 book Psychoanalysis and Feminism @versobooks.bsky.social www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/stock/psycho...

cleaning out a cupboard in the back office, we've just come across the original floorplans for the bookshop, and it turns out we have an additional second basement underneath the first one! plans already afoot for what we're going to put there. david wants it to be a builders' merchants

What a joy to have Marie-Laure Bernadac in the shop discussing her new biography of Louise Bourgeois, *Knife-Woman*, with Lauren Elkin. Order signed copies here: www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/stock/knife-...

astonished to discover that cypress hill once played a concert for an audience of badgers

This week's bestsellers: lrb.me/6jh

advertising slogans coined by famous authors: DOROTHY L. SAYERS: "guinness is good for you" SALMAN RUSHDIE: "irresistibubble" (for aero), "that'll do nicely" (for amex) FAY WELDON: "go to work on an egg" NANCY MITFORD: "don't drink and drive, smoke and fly", "i like the pope, the pope smokes dope"

he sings the songs that remind him of the whiskey drink he sings the songs that remind him of the water drink

Today, after 12 glorious years, Gayle is saying goodbye to the Bookshop 😭😭😭 Here she is in her new professional habitat 👇 Find out more about her midlife crisis, and the books that encouraged it here: lrb.me/880e47

In a live episode of the 𝘓𝘙𝘉 podcast 𝘈𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘤𝘬at the @londonreviewbookshop.co.uk, Daniel Soar, Patrick Cockburn, @lalehkhalili.bsky.social and @tomstevenson.bsky.social will discuss the long aftermath of 9/11 and the War on Terror. Tickets here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/aftershock...

Sex and food at the LRB Bookshop with a discussion by writers Sheena Patel and Lauren J Joseph whose work is in the new issue of @vittles.bsky.social magazine! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/vittles-2-...

snow!!!

THIS WEDNESDAY! Escape the cold at our first late shopping evening of the year! Join us 6-8pm for 10% off books St. JOHN will be open late as well, for all your wine, doughnut and cocktail needs! Tickets free, but booking essential: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/january-la...

Pls quote this with your most underwhelming anecdotes about meeting minor celebrities, but also, this is important, after the anecdote please add in caps "LRB BOOKSHOP JANUARY SALE IS NOW ON". it was going to be delayed because we didn't have any sale stickers, but charlie found some in a drawer

Our bestsellers for the first week of the new year 🎆⁣ lrb.me/6jh

If you want a change of pace and topic - I have been listening to this today whilst cooking soup, and it is a really insightful and generous discussion.

*cough* Frank O'Hara is what, chopped liver to you?

1926 - 100 years ago in 10 hours and 4 minutes - was a very auspicious year for American poetry (births of Merrill, Ginsberg, Creeley) and American jazz (Coltrane & Davis). not much else going on. sad news about rilke

In our final podcast of 2025, geographer Danny Dorling, author of THE NEXT CRISIS, and philosopher Arianne Shahvisi look to the future to find out what we should be worried about and what we should do about it Listen here, or wherever you get your podcasts: lrb.me/ba9764 @versobooks.bsky.social

our infographics department have been hard at work over the festive season, putting together their objective ranking of stations on the piccadilly line, best to worst. (when station serves more than one line, only the piccadilly line elements are counted.) notes in adjacent column

This week's bestsellers - the last one of 2025! 🎉✨🎉 www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/booklists/ou...

a customer who works in the city told me about the McCrab and i went out on my lunchbreak on the elizabeth line to try it, and ye gods, it is amazing, the best new McDonalds menu item for at least a decade

In our penultimate podcast of 2025, Lamorna Ash discusses a new generation’s search for religion, as explored in her latest book DON’T FORGET WE’RE HERE FOREVER, with the LRB’s James Butler Listen here, or wherever you get your podcasts: lrb.me/8821d5 @bloomsburybooksuk.bsky.social

In today’s podcast, psychoanalyst Jamieson Webster, author of ON BREATHING, talks to Katherine Angel about care, dependence and what it means to breathe in an age of environmental catastrophe Listen here, or wherever you get your podcasts: lrb.me/8cf0cd

here is my little drummer boy theory

Happy Christmas Eve! The perfect time to listen to a podcast about the many evils of late capitalism! In our latest podcast, Laleh Khalili discusses her book EXTRACTIVE CAPITALISM with David Wearing Listen here, or wherever you get your podcasts: lrb.me/ac2119

🎶 Merry Christmas to me Merry Christmas to me Merry Christmas to Jeremy Merry Christmas to me 🎶 Thanks to @londonreviewbookshop.co.uk for shipping so quickly

have just received word that the faber & faber christmas crackers this year contain this as a 'fun fact': "DID YOU KNOW - in 2024, an ocelot was trained to be a Bookseller". this is just not the case. they did indeed let it loose in the shop, but it very rapidly had to be gathered up again

There’s still time to come and pick up any last minute Christmas presents! We’re open today until 6.30 p.m. and tomorrow until 4!

Two more podcasts for your festive entertainment! 🍐 Laura Beatty discusses her Hazel Press pamphlet PEAR TREES with Edmund de Waal lrb.me/0d4e14

Our final bestseller list before Christmas 🎄🎁📚⁣ lrb.me/6jh

🚨🚨🚨NEW PRYNNE ALERT🚨🚨🚨

it's a Christmas miracle - new poems from the one & only J.H. Prynne, in full "Doric Plumage". Order your copy here: www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/stock/doric-...

Our current Bestsellers! 🥖 Find out more here: www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/booklists/ou...

it's got smaller because i've been eating it

would people please stop hanging novels on nails and festooning them with glory? it is not remotely christmassy, and as virginia woolf has pointed out, the novel actually walks the high road, alive and alert, and brushes shoulders with real men and women

We're closing at 5.30pm today for a private event - come in before then for all your book-buying needs!

Nigel Slater kindly stopped by to sign some copies of A Thousand Feasts. Grab your signed copies here: www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/stock/a-thou...

This week’s Books of the Year list comes from Liv and features fiction, memoir, poetry and essays, but top of the list is Paul B. Preciado’s DYSPHORIA MUNDI Find out more about all Liv’s picks here: lrb.me/22889b

more important information on the surnames of booker prize winning authors, from our infographics department

The London Review Bookshop Christmas gift guide is here! Together we've selected books across every genre, which you can order for in-store collection or delivery anywhere in the world. Find out more here: www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/collections/...

Not only that, no author with a Q or an X in their surnames has ever been nominated. However, Anthony Quinn was a judge in 2006 and Paul Theroux was in 1979.

is david szalay the first writer with a 'z' in his surname to win the booker prize? far from it - penelope fitzgerald beat him to it, in 1979, followed by J.M. Coetzee in 1983 and 1999. our infographics department has put together a chart of the first appearance of each letter in the booker surnames