SEVEN FAIRS displaying rare books, maps, photographs and ephemera have come together for the first London International Antiquarian Book Fair Week from Saturday 8th to Sunday 16th June 2013. This is the first time all the fairs organisers have joined together to create a major event for both trade and public by holding all the major summer fairs in one week.

This will make it the biggest celebration of print-on-paper in the world – with seven different fairs in nine days. The fairs will be offering antiquarian and rare books, maps, manuscripts, prints, posters, ephemera and photographs.

Exhibition at the British Library

17 May - 17 September 2013

Propaganda is all around us. It is used to fight wars and fight disease, build unity and create division. Whether monumental or commonplace, sincere or insidious, propaganda is often surprising, sometimes horrific and occasionally humorous. While it’s never neutral, it can be difficult to define and identify.

Opening hours are:

Sunday, 9 June, By Appointment
10-15 June 10:00 – 6:00
The Gallery in Cork Street (http://www.galleryincorkstreet.com/)

A preview and a permanent reminder of the exhibition curated by Edward Bayntun-Coward of George Bayntun for the ABA's London Antiquarian Book Fair at Olympia in June 2013.  The link below shows some offbeat examples - both books which look like something else - and something else which looks like a book.

For some examples of Books Not Books - Click Here - and please let us have some more ... 

Learn about the antiquarian book trade from the best booksellers in the country.

A new seminar programme supported jointly by both the ABA and the PBFA will be held between 15th-17th September 2014 (to coincide with the York National Book Fair).

Among those who have already agreed to serve on the faculty are Ed Maggs (Maggs Bros.), Simon Beattie, Justin Croft, Adam Douglas (Peter Harrington), Jonathan Kearns (Adrian Harrington), Sophie Schneideman and Anthony Smithson (Keel Row Bookshop).

London dealer Sam Fogg is probably the most glamorous and successful of the new generation of British dealers, dominating the market for manuscripts. He tells Beatie Wolfe the secrets of his success.

As long as you have an open mind you can use the money to buy something else and make money on that. You’ve got to keep rolling the dice.

A Life in Books (…in 3 minutes) with Mick Stone, Camberwell Books and Collectibles, Australia

How did you get started in the book business?

By becoming mates with Bill Mathews who taught me heaps - e.g. Books like Wodehouse, Joan Butler, Fleming, Blyton, Johns at fetes and op shops were just like picking up 5 and 10 dollar notes sticking out from the shelves. I "ran" to shops, (Bradstreets, Grants, even old Evans), and fielded weekend market stalls. Then in 1976, I started the eponymous "Weekend Bookshop" with Bill and Nick Dawes.

By Beatie Wolfe. Published in Rare Book Review in 2008

Brian Lake became Vice President to Laurence Worms in 2011. He has managed the London International Antiquarian Book Fair at Olympia for two years and edited the ABA’s Newsletter for six years – both posts from which he will be standing down later this summer. He is an ex-Chairman of the other UK trade association, the PBFA.

During his presidency Brian intends to build on the reforms and improvements that have taken place under Laurence Worms and to increase the practical cooperation with other like-minded associations within the UK and around the world for the good of ABA members and the book trade as a whole.

The ABA is very pleased to welcome nine new members, elected by Council in March and April 2013.  Our congratulations to the following on their election:

Simon Patterson of Hyraxia Books is an associate member of the ABA and the PBFA. Simon, with his wife Gail, has been running Hyraxia since 2010 after a decade of collecting. 

Hyraxia Books specialise in speculative fiction, but sell a wide range of modern first edition fiction along with Fine Press publications and the ocassional photobook. The business operates from a private residence in Leeds, where clients are more then welcome for a cup of tea in the book room - if they don't mind being hassled by the resident toddlers. Hyraxia Books can be found at most of the premier PBFA fairs throughout the country and always online on Twitter and Facebook. We take particular interest in new collectors, helping them build collections and make the right decisions. 

Marc Harrison has been a full time bookseller and member of the PBFA for over ten years. He had a bookshop in Salisbury (Ellwood Books) for a number of years, which sadly had to close. Currently, as well as selling books online, Marc regularly attends fairs around the country – particularly in the South and West where he is the regional PBFA Chair. He is based in Wimborne, Dorset, with an office there and a warehouse near Romsey in neigh-bouring Hampshire.

Having recently married, Marc has added his wife’s maiden name into the business: hence “Harrison-Hiett”.

In reading and listening to stories how many booksellers started in the trade there is possibly one common thread and that is that it was not a planned career move. Having spent most of my life at the commercial sharp end of distribution companies with a previous era spent sitting at a drawing board in the architectural and landscape worlds it did not cross my mind that bookselling would call. Yes, I collected books, Switzerland and angling, and a few years ago I started attending a bookbinding workshop little realizing that these were providing the environment that would spawn another bookseller. The person who suggested I “did a book fair” he was organising suggested it would “make some more room on my shelves”. I did it and was out buying some more stock immediately.