Paris between the two world wars was home to some of the most important figures and movements of twentieth century literature. Small English-language imprints published work by the high command of the Modernist avant-garde, and battalions of influential literary magazines ensured it found a readership.

But it wasn't all Ulysses. A loophole in the French obscenity laws, only ever used to prosecute books published in French, meant that English-language books banned in their home countries were publishable in Paris. Pornographers flocked -- but so did writers and publishers keen to produce frank and honest work of genuine literary merit.

Paris launched the careers of some of the twentieth century's leading literary names; it also sowed the seeds of the end of literary censorship.