Ian Foster:

>Would list members recommend books on Gilbert and Sullivan? I have
>become a recent convert, having seen Mike Leigh's film 'Topsy Turvy'.  ...

I loved the film as well.  Good books on Sullivan include Arthur Jacobs's
Arthur Sullivan:  A Victorian Musician and Gervase Hughes's Music of Arthur
Sullivan.  The latter requires some technical expertise and concentrates on
the music.

David Eden's Gilbert and Sullivan:  The Creative Conflict concentrates
on the partnership and the career.  There was also a book that came out
sometime in the 1970s (title and author escape me), which was the first
to crack the code of Sullivan's diaries.  I remember it caused a bit of
a stir.

For a list of books and articles on the team, try Philip H. Dillard's
How Quaint the Ways of Paradox!:  An Annotated Gilbert and Sullivan
Bibliography.

Less has been written on Gilbert, for some reason.

Most of the really interesting books on the team are out of print.
Interest is currently rather low, especially compared to what they received
in the Twenties and Thirties.  I can't imagine Glyndebourne reviving the
operettas, as the festival did (and EMI published in what remain for me the
best recordings) in the Fifties.

Steve Schwartz