rene Vallejo, a Spanish journalist and scholar, has a writer's passion for books and a classicist's fascination with the way they came to be. She is also imaginative, lively and contemporary. In her hands written texts are not only a sensual pleasure, but living and frequently disruptive... Ms Vallejo has a notable talent for evoking ancient scenes. Her description, for example, of the poet Martial returning to Spain from Rome, near the end of the book, is masterly. - Economist

This prize-winning Spanish title has a classy jacket and impressive heft, which is only fitting really, since it celebrates the book as an object. More enticingly still, novelist and essayist Vallejo enlivens history with imagination and personal anecdote as she traces the book's lineage from scrolls made of aquatic plant pith to codices and tablets, digressing to show how its development is interwoven with the development of western civilisation. Is Papyrus available as an ebook? Yes, but I'll bet any reader drawn to it is going to want to save up for the hardcover. - Observer

In this generous, sprawling work... Vallejo sets out to provide a panoramic survey of how books shaped not just the ancient world but ours too. While she pays due attention to the physicality of the book... Vallejo is equally interested in what goes on inside its covers. And also, more importantly, what goes on inside a reader when they take up a volume and embark on an imaginative and intellectual dance that might just change their life. As much as a history of books, Papyrus is also a history of reading. - Guardian