Graham Tarrant > Quotes

“We have Dr Seuss to thank for ‘nerd’, one of the imaginary animals in his children’s story If I Ran the Zoo (1950), though the modern definition of the word arrived much later.”
― Graham Tarrant, For the Love of Books: Stories of Literary Lives, Banned Books, Author Feuds, Extraordinary Characters, and More

“Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832). Hugely popular and influential in his time (not to say prolific: he penned twenty-five bulky novels in the space of just eighteen years), his work is less well read today. His most famous book is Ivanhoe (1819), familiar to generations”
― Graham Tarrant, For the Love of Books: Stories of Literary Lives, Banned Books, Author Feuds, Extraordinary Characters, and More

“jewellery and enamel work in the ornate lettering and decoration, making the Lindisfarne Gospels an important example of early English art. The eighth-century Book of Kells, another monastic masterpiece, is on permanent view at Trinity College, Dublin – though only one page a day, so you may want to make several visits. Its 680 pages (just sixty have gone missing over the years) are exquisitely decorated, justifying perhaps the sacrifice of the 185 calves whose skins produced the vellum on which the text is written and illustrated.”
― Graham Tarrant, For the Love of Books: Stories of Literary Lives, Banned Books, Author Feuds, Extraordinary Characters, and More