If someone held me down and demanded I tell them exactly who changed my literary life I’d have to reply “Nancy Drew”. Seriously. Everyone’s favorite Titian haired girl detective with a blue roadster set me on a path that mumblemublethirtysomethingmumblemumble years later has me blissful;y curling up on Mr Couch and shooting death glares at Blacklight who innocently rambles through the living room still not understanding that after almost six years of wedded bliss Gwen + book=GO AWAY LEAVE ‘LONE.

For others it might be Spiderman (Blacklight). Or Nero Wolfe (the late Mater). For Helene (84, Charing Cross Road) Hanff her key to the literary world was the British scholar Q, otherwise known as Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch. It was the Depression and Helene wanted an education more than anything else. And in the depths of the library, she found her first book of Q’s lectures and never looked back. Moving from cheap hotel rooms, one room hovels to a brand new studio apartment, the Q lectures and a host of literary classics painstaking acquired from a London secondhand bookshop followed her.

Then in 1970, a collection of the letters between Helene and her unseen friends at the London bookshop was published. And the cult of 84,  Charing Cross Road began. Another book based on her adventures in England in the 84,  Charing Cross Road fever came out. All this because of book a young and knowledge starved young women picked out of the library stacks.

Without Q there was no need to read all the works he reference, no need to turn to a tiny London secondhand bookshop for the things she just couldn’t afford or find in New York City, no letters to the unseen FPD, no 84, Charing Cross Road. And thanks to the 84, Charing Cross Road cult, a visit to watch the filming of the BBC adaptation gives Helene the chance to visit Q’s actual stomping grounds. And even later, the London stage adaptation gives Helene the chance to be the toast of the London theater world. Not too shabby for a little girl from Philadelphia, right?

Q’s Legacy is a book that is best read if you’ve already read 84, Charing Cross Road or seen the television play. If you’ve haven’t read 84, Charing Cross Road then you’ll still get caught up in Helene’s shock and joy as her little book succeeds and her second round of London adventures. Best to read 84, Charing Cross Road and The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street first. Then sit back and enjoy Q’s Legacy and try to resist the urge to roam the stacks of your library and local used and rare bookstore.