The author, Denis Godfrey was a Johannesburg journalist whose features appeared regularly in The Star. He was himself an assiduous collector of Africana, and loved a bargain. This book was a popular book about Africana books and Collectors in its day. R F Kennedy described the book as "full of good stories and not always accurate information", although it has the self-important subtitle, " a discourse on Africana book-collecting, with notes on famous collectors, collections and books". It appeared as a limited edition in 1963 and within 3 months the second edition had been published. It has the feel of a miscellany and was a keen punt for Africana book collecting in the 1960s. It is lightweight and anecdotal but has some useful snippets of advice. 

THE ENCHANTED DOOR has become collectable and even after nearly 60 years, Godfrey's thoughts on what types of books to collect, the original bibliographic sources and where to find treasures still applies.

While Godfrey poured over printed catalogues we search the internet. The collections of great collectors such as Campbell, Gubbins and Humphreys have gone into institutions and universities. Humphreys collected mining material when no one else appreciated the value; his advice to collectors was to specialize as top general material becomes ever rarer.