This book is a writer's appreciation to her mentor, whom she never knew except on the printed page. Unable to afford college during the Depression, Helene Hanff chanced upon the published lectures of the Cambridge don Sir Arthur Quiller - Couch " On the Art of Writing." Feeling she could do no better than to study under an Oxford educated Englishman, Hanff used "Q's" lectures as a springboard for her own literary education. She began a correspondence with a small British bookstore, which led eventually to the publication of "84, Charing Cross Road." This book picks up following the fame and adventures that followed.