The Phantom Tollbooth

Illustrator Jules Feiffer
Author Norton Juster
Year 1975 (first published 1961)
Publisher Lions
ISBN 0-00-6707998

“It seems to me that almost everything is a waste of time,” Milo remarks as he walks dejectedly home from school. But his glumness soon turns to surprise when he unwraps a mysterious package marked ONE GENUINE TURNPIKE TOLLBOOTH. Once through the Phantom Tollbooth Milo has no more time to be bored for before him lies the strange land of the Kingdom of Wisdom and a series of even stranger adventures when he meets the watchdog Tock who ticks, King Azaz the Unabridged the unhappy ruler of Dictionopolis, Faintly Macabre the not so wicked Which, the Whether Man and the threadbare Excuse among a collection of the most logically illogical characters ever met on this side or that side of reality.

‘This marvellous story about a spoilt boy’s somewhat Alice like journey into the world of words and numbers must be one of the most brilliant pieces of nonsense written in our time, and not so nonsensical either.’
Naomi Lewis, BBC World of Books

The Phantom Tollbooth available on Amazon

The Phantom Tollbooth (full size)

Best: An Intimate Biography

Illustrator Bergen (first name not listed)
Author Michael Parkinson
Year 1975
Publisher Arrow
ISBN 0-09-911480-1

George Best – the greatest footballer of all time?

Certainly the most controversial. In his stormy, spectacular career, this wayward genius from the backstreets of Belfast attracted more praise – and more criticism – than any pop star or politician.

Now in one of the most intimate and revealing biographies ever published, Michael Parkinson tells the true, explosive story behind Best’s dazzling success and tragic decline.

It’s all here. The rows, the rivalries, the girls, the goals. With Best’s own biting comments on the world he once ruled.

The KnowHow Book of Spycraft

Illustrator Colin King
Designer John Jamieson
Authors Falcon Travis and Judy Hindley
Year 1975
Publisher Usborne
ISBN 0-86020-082-5

About This Book (from the inside front cover)

This book is all about keeping secrets. It shows you how to set up secret meeting places and a secret post office and how to disguise your messages. It shows you lots of secret codes and signals.

On the first page you will meet the Black Hat Spy. Watch out for the tricks he plays in Spy Trick – these are things real spies have done. You can see what equipment a spy uses and how he hides it quickly in an emergency.

There are messages in code all through the book. See if you can work them out.

The KnowHow Book of Spycraft available on Amazon

The World of Sherlock Holmes

Illustrator Mary Evans
Author Michael Harrison
Year 1975 (first published 1973)
Publisher Nel Mentor
ISBN 450-02410-5

‘Mr Harrison is perhaps the doyen of Sherlockians.’ Pamela Hansford Johnson

Why did Sherlock Holmes visit America? What did he do for Vanderbilt? Why did he remain silent about the identity of Jack the Ripper? What was the secret of the Vatican Cameos? Why did the kings of Denmark, Sweden and Holland, the Sultan of Turkey, the President of the United States and the Emperor of All the Russias confer on Holmes their highest decorations?

Sherlock Holmes: The Famous Biography

Illustrator Richard Clifton-Dey
Author W. S. Baring-Gould
Year 1975 (first published 1962)
Publisher Granada
ISBN 586-04260-1

THE GREATEST SLEUTH EVER KNOWN

Sherlock Holmes has become a legend, his very name synonymous with brilliant crime detection. Here is the first comprehensive biography of the man, written with scrupulous accuracy, thoroughness and a warm infectious enthusiasm. Tracing Holmes’s career, W. S. Baring-Gould has revealed many hitherto unknown facts: his parentage and early life, his somewhat erratic years at Oxford, Cambridge and Bart’s, as well as an interlude on the stage in Britain and America. Holmes’s little-known relationships with other celebrities of the time – including King Edward VII, Karl Marx, Lewis Carroll and Bernard Shaw – are put in the perspective of his mysterious ‘missing years.’

For those long acquainted with Holmes’s superb feats of detection and newcomers to the classic accounts of his exploits alike, Sherlock Holmes provides fascinating and unputdownable reading.

Sherlock Holmes: The Famous Biography available on Amazon