Behind the Bookshelves AbeBooks

We're joined by Dianne Jacob, a writing coach who specializes in food writing. Dianne tutors would-be writers on writing and publishing books, and also writing freelance articles, and blogging. Many of her students have signed publishing deals with major publishers. Dianne is the author of Will Write for Food: Pursue Your Passion and Bring Home the Dough Writing Recipes, Cookbooks, Blogs and More – a book that is essential for anyone wishing to write professionally about food. We discuss the most common mistakes made by would-be writers, Anthony Bourdain's impact, the art of writing recipes, and much more.

We go Down Under to learn about koalas with Australian zoologist Danielle Clode, who has written a new book called Koala: A Natural History and an Uncertain Future. Koalas regularly appeared in Danielle’s backyard, but it was only when a bushfire came close that she started to pay closer attention to them. Her book shows how complex and mysterious they are. We discuss how koalas are affected by disease, climate change, wildfires, and over population.

We're joined by Tom Ayling who works for Jonkers Rare Books in Henley on Thames, in the UK. Tom has uploaded hundreds of videos to TikTok about a wide variety of bookish subjects, from The Hobbit first edition to rare bibles, Shakespeare First Folios, and collectible Harry Potters. Tom’s a master storyteller. His videos are educational and entertaining, and almost certainly winning a new audience for rare books.

Our Halloween episode. We're joined by Greg Melville, who is the author of a new book called Over My Dead Body: Unearthing the Hidden History of America’s Cemeteries. Greg has toured the United States, visiting notable historic cemeteries from Burial Hill in Plymouth, Massachusetts, to Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia and Boothill in Tombstone, Arizona. We discuss colonial sites, graveyards from the slavery era, celebrity graves, architecture, and nature, and never once mention ghosts.

We speak to Ariana Valderrama who has just won the inaugural David Ruggles Prize, which is a new book collecting contest designed to encourage and support young collectors of color. Ariana decided to focus on Toni Morrison but not her rather expensive first editions. Instead Ariana collects books that Morrison edited and books where she provided a blurb. We learn how Ariana started collecting during the pandemic and hear about the books in her award-winning collection.

In this episode, we learn about a remarkable luxury art book that celebrates Rome's Sistine Chapel. Nicholas Callaway and Manuela Roosevelt join us from Callaway Arts and Media. They've produced a 3-volume limited edition book about the Sistine Chapel that features 1:1 scale images of the chapel’s masterpieces by Michelangelo and the other Renaissance artists. We discover how this book - which is listed for sale on AbeBooks - was created over 5 years using state of the art technology. Each volume weighs 20lbs and measures 24 x 17 inches.