Bertrand Russell at the Free Trade Hall

An ageing, self-taught literary loner - and a book-lover still, in a world increasingly dominated by electronic gadgetry - Brian Darwent here reflects on the literary figures of times now past who have loomed largest in his thoughts through many years of untutored reading (and writing), and sometimes penetrated his real life more deeply. In addition to the philosopher Bertrand Russell, whom he heard speak in Manchester in 1964 at the age of ninety-one, they include Kurt Vonnegut, Somerset Maugham, Malcolm Muggeridge, James Thurber, William Saroyan and the economist JK Galbraith - all in their day famous names, but too often missing now from bookshop and library shelves.

As the author himself explains: "At my advanced age I hate to see writers who have meant a lot to me being elbowed from the shelves by new names. Of course you can't really complain. It's the sort of thing that must happen to most people, I expect, if they live long enough. You're left with the feeling that you've been caught out, somehow. Left up a blind alley. Protesting in vain."

Blending personal recollections, biography and non-academic literary comment, the book is not a calculated product of cold research. Derived from knowledge freely absorbed over many years, its aim is to show that books - real books - and their authors can have a deep and lasting meaning in our lives.