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I hate to bring bad news to the readers and collectors of The Hardy Boys or The Nancy Drew juvenile series so loved by people all over the world but have you ever heard of "A House Name"?. . . Well meet some of them: Franklin W. Dixon, Carolyn Keene, Victor Appleton, and Laura Lee Hope (of the famed The Bobbsey Twins series).

At Bologna's city centre, Piazza de Nettuno, we are queuing up early one September morning for the coach that is to take us to Ravenna for a day trip. Just then someone from behind sends a relay mail up the queue for me. It is an A4 size sheet of paper folded in the middle and stapled at the top. I unfold the sheet. A review of Geoffrey Nunberg's The Future of the Book downloaded from the net opens out. "The death of the book has been duly announced," says the review, "and with it the end of brick-and-mortar libraries…" I turn back to see if I can spot the bookseller who sent up the review. There is a smiling face deep down the line with a pair of eyes peering at me rather mischievously. The irony of the situation is not lost on me. Here is a California University futurist announcing the death of the book just when this large group of antiquarian booksellers is setting out on a tour of antiquarian libraries in heartland Renaissance.

Over the course of what is now a legendary international career, Mason shows unerring instincts for the logic of the trade. He makes good money from Canadian editions, both legitimate and pirated (turns out Canadian piracies so incensed Mark Twain that he moved to Montreal for six months to gain copyright protection). He outfoxes the cousins of L.M. Montgomery at auction and blackmails the head of the Royal Ontario Museum. He excoriates the bureaucratic pettiness that obstructs public acquisitions, he trumpets the ingenuity of collectors and scouts, and in archives around the world he appraises history in its unsifted and most moving forms. And above all: David Mason boldly campaigns for what he feels is the moral duty of the antiquarian trade: to preserve the history and traditions of all nations, and to assert without compromise that such histories have value.

In the podcast of the University of St. Andrews researchers and library staff report about their work in the library and with the library's rich treasures. This week Dr Margaret Connolly describes the Roll of Kings, a 15th century genealogical roll of the English monarchy, with a brief vernacular chronicle.

Murder on the Orient Express. And Then There Were None. Murder at the Vicarage. The Body in the Library. A Murder is Announced. By the Pricking of My Thumbs. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. 4.50 From Paddington. What do all of these titles have in common? Besides great plots, inventive narratives and extremely competent character development? They were all written by the "Queen of Crime", Dame Agatha Christie. Christie is said to be the best-selling novelist of all time (according to the Guinness Book of World Records) with over 2 billion copies of her novels sold and having been translated into 103 different languages. Reputedly, Christie is the third most popular author of all time, with regard to sales figures, finishing behind just William Shakespeare and the Bible. Furthermore, Christie's stage-play "The Mousetrap" is the longest running (straight-play) stage production of all time, having opened in London in November 1952 and still being performed, with over 25,000 performances to date. How did this lady crime-novelist get to be so popular? How did her (seemingly average) life influence her writing? And perhaps the most important question of all… Who Killed Roger Ackroyd?!? (Just kidding, no spoiler alerts necessary). Stay tuned.

An extraordinary collection of Norman Lindsay books assembled by the artist of the iconic Australian comic strip Ginger Meggs will feature in the first auction of Sydney Rare Books Auctions, a new auction house specializing in rare and fine books, photographs and memorabilia.