The library is situated, said the short entry in the Guide to British Libraries A-L, in pleasant rolling countryside not too far from Hereford, and is perhaps most readily accessible by private motor vehicle. This statement was quite accurate. Inaccessibility had always been one of the Library’s most prized qualities. The Last Resort Library was founded in 1962, and is a forward-looking institution with very much its own sense of mission, it continued. The truth was that the Guide compiler had never heard of the Library himself, but someone had mentioned it to him right at the last minute, and he was improvising while correcting proofs. Researchers should be aware that, despite the size of the Library’s holdings, there is no published catalogue of any kind. That’s what he had been told, and it seemed only sensible to make a formal note of it. - Prologue