Revenge of the Librarians

Confront the spectre of failure, the wraith of social media, and other supernatural enemies of the author

Tom Gauld returns with his wittiest and most trenchant collection of literary cartoons to date. Perfectly composed drawings are punctuated with the artist's signature brand of humour, hitting high and low. After all, Gauld is just as comfortable taking jabs at Jane Eyre and Game of Thrones.

Some particularly favoured targets include the pretentious procrastinating novelist, the commercial mercenary of the dispassionate editor, the willful obscurantism of the vainglorious poet. Quake in the presence of the stack of bedside books as it grows taller! Gnash your teeth at the ever-moving deadline that the writer never meets! Quail before the critic's incisive dissection of the manuscript! And most importantly, seethe with envy at the paragon of creative productivity!

Revenge of the Librarians contains even more murders, drubbings, and castigations than The Department of Mind-Blowing Theories, Baking For Kafka, or any other collections of mordant scribblings by the inimitably excellent Gauld.

"Gauld's literary comic strips, originally published in The Guardian, are sharp and range in their humor."-Library Journal

"Over the past few years, Gauld's style has become instantly recognizable. His figures… stand in for a kind of Everyman or woman, up against institutions and social mores that Gauld is intent on presenting as silly."-The New York Times

"Precise and wryly hilarious."-NPR

"Simply hilarious." -Buzzfeed Books