While Alasdair Gray has chosen and edited all the prefaces and has written most of the commentary he has been assisted in this endeavour by some thirty authors who have also written commentaries. These include James Kelman, Janice Galloway, A.L. Kennedy, Bernard MacLaverty, Liz Lochhead, Roger Scruton and, indeed, Virginia Woolf. A copy of the "Book of Prefaces" should be found in every household and hotel bedroom. It is a unique work of literature, indeed a history of literature which will delight and amaze and inform both casual browsers and students. Its like has never been seen nor will it be seen again for at least another millennium.