A book like no other, HoBK is very tough to concisely describe, but we'll give it the old college try:  It is a meditation on ideas concerning knowledge; specifically on what constitutes authority in the realm of knowledge, and how this authority is represented.  It is -- whether consciously so or not is open to debate -- an examination of the perception that an innate authority lies in manuscripts -- literally "writing by hand" -- the medium through which all traditional knowledge was stored and distributed during the millenia preceding Gutenberg's invention of movable type and the printing press which ushered in the era of print (which era, we hasten to add, is now coming to a close -- what better time to revisit its precursor?).  Fenwick employs walls of irony and sarcasm to seal off the reader into chamber of darkness wherein he lights a single candle and everything is illuminated.