In today’s Republic of Letters, we have a true book-loving Queen and she is a marvel. As HMQ left the shop this month, the irrepressible Jeffrey Archer was waiting outside with a warm greeting. Good books and invariably interesting people continuously flow through our shop (just as the old River Tyburn is now piped beneath it). The Queen is doing all that she can to support it, and imaginatively so. But in general, the literary landscape is pretty parched and in need of constant watering by book people everywhere.