Crumpled, unwashed and chronically out of money: for centuries, book reviewers have slunk around the back pages of our newspapers and magazines. The stereotypes — stained shirt, elbow patches, hunted look around the eyes — are familiar. The great critic Samuel Johnson was a classic of the genre: “a man of dreadful appearance, very slovenly in his dress and with a most uncouth voice”. And that was according to one of his best friends.
What, one wonders, would Dr Johnson have made of a new generation of charismatic, immaculately coiffed online reviewers. “BookTubers” as they are (slightly irritatingly) known, post videoed book reviews on YouTube and many rack up hundreds of thousands — even millions — of views. In an age when the BBC won’t
