Malagasy literary output and books about the Republic have already been dealt with in a bibliography of major importance, by Guillaume Grandidier, Bibliographie de Madagascar, vols. I and II (Paris, 1905–6 and 1935), vol. III (Tananarive, 1957), and vol. IV (in preparation). Since 1964 the national and university libraries have been working jointly on an annual bibliography, of which two volumes, for 1964 and 1965, have been published (Tananarive, 1967 and 1968). This short note does not aim to offer a complete bibliographical survey, but to provide for cultivated English-speakers a short but comprehensive list of non-specialised publications which would enable the ‘common reader’ to acquire a respectable knowledge of Madagascar.