Saffron Walden’s astounding independent library, The Gibson Library, commissioned this colourful history of their remarkable, and sometimes scandalous, institution and collection. The oldest book is from 1350; there is a medieval chain book; a volume marginalised by Martin Luther (in rather angry red ink); rare original tracts from the English Civil War; and, among much more, a first edition of Dr Johnson’s Dictionary. Several books are pressed with flowers, coins, cash and textiles. Here can be heard the voices of the formerly enslaved, working class Victorian children, and the suffragettes, and among the stories almost lost to history are those of the extraordinary elephant that once saved Queen Victoria, a Shakespearean mystery, and the exposure of various book thieves…