The National Book League was a precursor to the current Booktrust, and was set up in 1924 by the Society of Bookmen in order to promote reading, particularly among the young. To that end, the NBL issued Reader's Guides on a variety of subjects, each written by an author with expertise in that field and containing an annotated bibliography of recommended titles on the subject. This bibliography by H. Stanley Hyland, Senior Library Clerk in the House of Commons Library, first published in 1951, is in three sections: Section One lists books on the history of the monarchy, as well as on court procedure and information on the royal palaces. Section Two deals mostly with the history of Parliament in the various jurisdictions of the British Isles, and Section Three concerns the meeting of the monarchy and Parliament throughout history.
