We get a lot of review copies of books in our office but never before have we received one with such a scandalous surfeit of packaging as this.

As you can see, the contents arrived as carefully packaged as a donor organ, swaddled in plastic and nestled on a cardboard insert within a large box. The precious cargo is a hardback book illustrating the history of the America’s Cup with paintings.

Presumably publishers David & Charles thought it too important for a mere jiffy bag.