Cosmo Books Destroyed By Fire

In the early hours of Wednesday 6th October 2021 Cosmo Books was entirely destroyed in a fire, from an arson incident at a neighbouring unit behind us. Nearly our entire stock of about 170,000 titles was lost, with just a handful of lucky survivors.

However, we have begun listing again and now have a modest selection of material available. Lots more will be added in the coming weeks and months, and the aim is to get back to a similar range of titles as previously on offer, so do please keep checking back to see what is being regularly added.

Click below to see more pictures of the destruction and to read a couple of interviews with the local press regarding the fire -

Shropshire Star

Whitchurch Herald

Theodore Dalrymple

Two new books from this prolific writer.

An Englishman's Home…: … Is His Car Park - Indifference as a Way of Life

How did Britain become a nation seemingly resigned to its own indifference? In this sharp and entertaining critique, Theodore Dalrymple dissects the cultural decline through a series of observations of everyday slovenliness. From the paved-over front gardens that become car parks to the carelessness toward civic beauty, Dalrymple argues that a collective affection for what is held in common is eroding the nation's spirit. This book is a humorous, and sometimes acerbic, examination of modern Britain's peculiar ailment and how to restore civic pride and end performative behaviour.

Agatha Christie and the Metaphysics of Murder: Agatha Christie as Philosopher

The twentieth-century literary critic Edmund Wilson chided Agatha Christie for her “mawkishness and banality” and declared her work “literally impossible to read.” Even if this were so, that Agatha Christie’s books were mere trash of no intellectual substance whatever, the fact that they were (and are) of such worldwide appeal might be worth investigating. How is it that books whose action takes place in a social milieu so completely alien to that of the vast majority of mankind were nevertheless able to capture their imagination? Does this not suggest some skill on the part of the author? Agatha Christie and the Metaphysics of Murder investigates the philosophy behind the Queen of Crime’s bestselling books, arriving at conclusions that will surprise readers who might dismiss them as lightweight fluff.