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My belief is that the book represents the apotheosis of the printer’s art and the greatest contribution by the industry to the civilisation of society. Invariably I experience discomfort when books suffer vicissitudes of any kind, as exemplified by a burst water pipe flooding the basement of the Library of Scotland in Edinburgh last year, endangering some of the collection.

It is interesting to reflect on the more lethal enemies of books. Water must rank as a foremost hazard, particularly because of the hygroscopic nature of paper that suffers distortions when moistened to any degree. Leather and other bindings are similarly vulnerable to damp.

War is another menace. Many libraries and collections have been destroyed over
the centuries because of the indiscriminate avages of conflict. The latest in a litany of disasters occurred in Baghdad during the second Gulf war, when many bibliographic treasures were destroyed.

Fire constitutes a devastating threat and has consumed priceless volumes over the years. Wilful burning of books as an expression of human intolerance is singularly distressing. Despotic dictators and repressive political regimes have occasionally resorted to burning books in a futile attempt to eradicate ideas contained in their pages. Several excesses occurred in the last century, instanced by the Nazis setting fire to 20,000 volumes in Berlin during 1933, the Serbs burning Islamic literature in Sarajevo during 1992 and Muslims in Bradford and Bolton immolating copies of The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie in 1989.

Lack of space precludes consideration of more covert attacks on books by mildew and other organisms, but remember the words of one critic: ‘A good book is the best of friends, the same today and forever’.

Lawrence Wallis held international pre-press marketing positions and was a respected author and print historian.