Interview
Sheila Markham Interviewed Serge Plantureux in June 1994.
There are various versions of how I got started in bookselling. The one I choose today goes something like this. When I was about eight years old, a relative died leaving a house stuffed with interesting bits and pieces. I remember going to visit it with my father, who was keen for me to...
Interview
The Society of Antiquaries of London is well-known to bibliophiles, regularly hosting meetings and offering access to a rather remarkable library in Burlington House. This month, our Librarian Interview is with Dunia Garcia-Ontiveros, Head of Library and Museum Collections.
The Society has such a vast collection, and your library is at its...
Interview
‘I sold my first book in 1914 when I was eight years old. After school, I went to work for my father in Porchester Road. It never occurred to me to do anything else. I was born into the book trade and, in those days, you just got on with it. My father marked the books and I sold them, learning as I went along. If you want to shoe a horse, you...
Catalogue Review
We like the sound of the Cecil Beaton catalogue Beaux Books are launching at Firsts London this year and have talked to Clare Trimming about it.
Please tell us where the collection is coming from, is it a private collection or have you collected it over the years? Is it being sold as a whole or individually?
The collection has been...
Interview
We are excited to have started our Librarian interviews again - if you would like to be interviewed, please get in touch!
Technically, this month's interview is not with a librarian, but we have asked Błażej Mikuła, who has been a contributor to The Book Collector and James Fleming's Bond Behind the Iron Curtain, as we are fascinated by his...
Interview
Timothy D'Arch Smith was interviewed by Sheila Markham for The Book Collector Winter 2011
I derive my bookishness from my mother’s side of the family, the Frankau gang, as I call them. They originated in the German town of Frankenau and came to this country in the 1840s as tobacco merchants. My great grandfather, Arthur, married Julia...
Interview
This week Silke Lohmann spoke with Bernard Shapero of Shapero Rare Books, about the upcoming catalogue 'The Pelster Collection' of approximately 50 illustrated books on birds, specifically parrots, including highlights such as Edward Lear's 'Illustrations of the family of Psittacidae, or parrots' published in 1832 with an asking price of £135,000....
Interview
Technicolour Dickens: The Living Image of Charles Dickens just opened at Dimbola House on the Isle of Wight and will be open until the 19th May. The exhibition presents Dickens' story through the medium of Victorian photography, with each image brought to life in full technicolour. Originally commissioned for the 150th anniversary of his death in...
News Story
By now, all of our readers will be aware that the British Library was attacked by cybercriminals in late October 2023, and that at the time of writing (early December), almost no online or electronic services have been restored. The BL catalogue is inaccessible online or on-site, as is ESTC, both essential tools for scholars, booksellers and...
News Story
The last few years have been rather tumultuous in UK politics. A far too regular change of prime ministers culminating in recent resignations and even the brief arrest of the former First Minister of Scotland. But the UK is not the only country where politics seems to have gone a little off-piste and the public seems to be more interested in the...