Making the News: An Anthology of the Newsbooks of Revolutionary England, 1641-1660.

This strapping volume initially puzzled me. It is a collection of extracts from newsbooks of the Civil War and Interregnum. Complete runs of several major series of newsbooks from the period, such as Mercurius Politicus and Mercurius Aulicus, have been published in facsimile. Anyway, surely a serious scholar of the period would wish to look, not at Mr Raymond's selection of (sometimes very brief) extracts but at whole issues, and the choice of material, while it covers major events, includes much that is at the whim of the editor. Browsing the collection gradually eroded my prejudices, for this a book of great charm for both historians and critics, and one which may well be …