By Mary Carlson – only seven copies were made. Published by Eager Beaver on Bainbridge Island in Washington State.

Last time we looked she was behind William Shakespeare, C.S. Lewis, Agatha Christie and Stephen King but ahead of J.K. Rowling, Charles Dickens and James Patterson. Read more about Georgette Heyer and her literary legacy.

Romance novel readers don’t have it easy. Already teased for reading the steamy tomes in the first place, they further have to deal with the humiliation of truly ghastly covers – tasteless and tawdry, garish and gaudy, these are lurid and cheesy enough to make someone wish for plain brown wrappers. But we say no more! We say embrace your love of reading, and your love of love! And in solidarity, we tried our hand at making some romance covers of our own – very family-friendly, of course. Enjoy the fruits of our labors.

Read more about the art of romance covers.

Recorded delivery is a no no according to Mantel.

Trust the postman. Do not get her out of bed for a signature. A courier service looks a bit needy. Any accompanying gifts should be valuable but compact: that is, nothing that will need help to carry to the pawnshop.

None of them mentioned spelling and grammar. I thought that would be key…. or perhaps not with today’s generation of texters. There is, of course, a book on this matter – How to Write Love Letters by Michelle Lovric.

Galleycat alerted me to The Composites – a Tumblr – dedicated to police sketches of literary characters. It’s definitely my site of the day. Sam Spade from The Maltese Falcon, Keith Talent from London Fields, Edward Rochester (above) from Jane Eyre, Pinkie Brown from Brighton Rock, Emma from Madame Bovary….

Collectible maps

This selection goes from Sri Lanka in 1513, when large sections of the globe remained unexplored, to war-torn China in 1944.

I agree with the Baz Luhrmann Romeo and Juliet – as much as that version was reviled by many, it was equally as celebrated by others, I among them. I enjoyed the creative interpretation and the modern take, though John Leguizamo left much to be desired as Tybalt. I was also happy to see the Kenneth Branagh version of Much Ado About Nothing make the list – it’s one of my favourite Shakespeare plays, and the adaptation is brilliant. I love Emma Thompson, and she made a perfect Beatrice. Let’s all just conveniently block out the Keanu Reeves bits, shall we?

There are many on the list I haven’t seen – I have some homework to do.

Watch the way she measures a man with agile studio eyes, with dimpled depravity. Adult emotions of love and grief glissade across the mask of childhood, a childhood that is only skin-deep. It is clever, but it cannot last. Her admirers—middle-aged men and clergymen—respond to her dubious coquetry, to the sight of her well-shaped and desirable little body, packed with enormous vitality, only because the safety curtain of story and dialogue drops between their intelligence and their desire.

Blimey! I thought she just sang songs about the good ship Lollipop. 101 Books goes on to reveal how Greene wrote The Power And The Glory.

Books come in different shapes and sizes. They can be small or very big indeed. Quarto, duodecimo, octavo and elephant folio are just some of the terms you will hear used, and this video from my colleague Christi helps to demystify the jargon.

You can learn more about book sizes at the AbeBooks’ Book Collecting Guide.