Welcome to Sotheran's, one of the oldest bookshops in the world, with its weird and wonderful clientele, suspicious cupboards, unlabelled keys, poisoned books and some things that aren't even books, presided over by one deeply eccentric apprentice. Some years ago, Oliver Darkshire interviewed for their bookselling apprenticeship, a decision which has bedevilled him ever since. He'd only intended to stay for a year, but the alluring smell of old books and the temptation of a management-approved afternoon nap proved irresistible. For while Sotheran's might be a treasure trove of literary delights, it sings a siren song to eccentrics. By turns unhinged and earnestly dog-eared, Once Upon a Tome is the rather colourful story of life in one of the world's oldest bookshops and a love letter to the benign, unruly world of antiquarian bookselling, where to be uncommon or strange is the best possible compliment.