Chapter and Verse

The National Trust’s latest publication highlights the range and variety of 100 intriguing books from its vast collection

- Claire Saul

The libraries of the National Trust hold many wonders, and host one of the most important book collections in the world. Among the 420,000 publications (and counting) spread across 200 sites in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, there are rare manuscripts, first editions, music prints, globes and more. New to today’s market is 100 Books from the Libraries of the National Trust which showcases a fraction of these titles, carefully chosen to demonstrate the sheer variety of this vast collection.

“One of the key things we wanted to show was the range of material – our library collection is much more than rows and rows of books, it also includes maps, some posters, all kinds of things,” says curator Tim Pye, one of the book’s authors. “We also wanted to show the range in the sense of date, which spans AD704 all the way up to the 21st century, and in terms of geographic range, so we have included items from around the world, including the first book printed in Antarctica.”