Book Review: A Life In Fifty Books. In this publishing memoir, Anthony Cheetham uses fifty titles as a way of mapping his long career.

It’s a fascinating, sometimes revelatory, sweep of a bookish life, from being taught to read by his mother when five years old, teaching English on a raspberry farm in Norway, to assessing the future of publishing, meeting with remarkable authors, making front page news and dealing in eye-watering advances.

The sheer breadth of featured titles and genres, from classical history to quantum physics, could be intimidating, or inspiring. I found it to be an utterly entertaining read.

From Cheetham’s first job at The New English Library, he could hardly believe he was being paid to read books, describing publishing as ‘…a passport to roam across the entire spectrum of human experience, endeavour and belief’.

Impressively, after fifty-eight years in publishing, the man is still looking forward to a book coming out in 2026.

A Life in Fifty Books, by Anthony Cheetham, is published by Head of Zeus. (Fittingly, the last company that he (co-)founded.)

Warning: This book may double your TBR pile. The Travelling Bookbinder cannot be held responsible for any trips to the book shop that may be made as a result of this review.

You can listen to Anthony Cheetham speaking about the book with Sam Leith, by clicking here.

Receive a 10% discount when you buy your copy from Golden Hare Books – use the code alifein50books which is valid until June 30th 2025.