Christopher de Hamel’s Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts is one of the very greatest books of the last twenty years.  So I buy whatever else he puts out, and I did not regret my purchase of this one.  Imagine an intersecting tale of a boyhood in New Zealand (!), the medieval manuscript collecting habits of Colonial Secretary Sir George Grey, and a Bildungsroman of both aesthetic taste and personal maturation.  The back cover notes that “Christopher de Hamel has probably handled more medieval manuscripts than anyone else alive…”  That he is such a special person shines through in all of his writings.  By the way, I learned that Dunedin is the Gaelic word for Edinburgh.

The new book you can order here.