This essential guide, now available in a fully updated new edition, is the only available study of all bestselling books, authors and genres since the start of the last century, giving an unique insight into a hundred years of publishing and reading and taking us on a journey into the heart of the British imagination.About the Author: Clive Bloom is Emeritus Professor of English and American Studies at Middlesex University, UK. Widely published and Series Editor of Palgrave Macmillan's Crime Files series, he is the author of Violent London and Riot City, amongst many other titles.