The Folio Book of Days

This anthology arranges dated extracts through the calendar, taking diaries, letters, journals, eyewitness reports, speeches, and sermons as its sources. Typical entries let a named witness record one day: a voyage, a murder, a coronation, a scientific first, a private quarrel, or a public disaster. Contributors run from medieval chroniclers and early modern diarists to later travellers, politicians, and writers. There is no continuous argument. The book is a day-by-day documentary miscellany, not a chronicle of one year and not a biography of the people quoted.

Bound in dark blue buckram blocked on the cover with a gilt design based on an astronomical instrument from 1589. Gilt slipcase with colour photos on front. Presentation volume for 2003.