What’s happened to the physical quality of books? “Setting aside magnificent art books and the sometimes quite extraordinary over-production of commercial ‘jackets’, the heft, boards, paper and design of a typical new novel or biography are decent and serviceable, certainly, but beautiful – no. Why should this be? Is it merely economics? A lack of aesthetic excellence is often blamed upon this quite nebulous excuse and on the declining standards of the book-buying public, which leave publishers under no obligation to make their books any better than they are.”