Shepherd Market, W1, has many ghosts, some of whom are literary. In the shadow of Patrick Leigh Fermor’s former digs – the scene of ‘wild and continuous’ parties in the summer of 1933 – Heywood Hill has just celebrated 90 years of bookselling. In today’s Republic of Letters, we have a true book-loving Queen and she is a marvel. To mark Heywood Hill’s anniversary Her Majesty graciously toured our tiny shop. She talked about her love of all kinds of books (The Cazalet Chronicles in particular) and gamely joined Jerry Vinalon and Jay Lomot, our splendid professional book-packers, in helping them gift-wrap parcels. She signed a postcard which one lucky book subscriber should find in their next package.

Not every customer is so fortunate. I love the story of an incensed Christopher Isherwood ringing the shop from California many decades ago, boiling with outrage at our latest invoice and the high cost of postage from London. It did not help his mood that inside his most recent parcel he discovered that our then packer had mistakenly included a very large and heavy hammer.

As HMQ left the shop this month, the irrepressible Jeffrey Archer was waiting outside with a warm greeting. Lord A is well known here. His son William remembers that on his graduation Jeffrey generously opened an unlimited tab for........

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