From the publisher:
Brightfount's is a bookshop in a small provincial city - but what are The Brightfount Diaries?

When they were first published, in The Bookseller, they enchanted its readers. Hard-headed publishers waited impatiently for the next instalment; from booksellers in every corner of the earth fanmail descended like a snowstorm on the author's then anonymous head. We are confident that they will be equally successful with everybody who likes books; or human beings; or both.