News
News and happenings from the book collecting world.
UNIQUE Exhibition
2nd July, 2024
The society of Designer Bookbinders in holding an exhibition of recent works by its members at The Benjamin Spademan Gallery in St James’s. ‘UNIQUE’ will run from 5th to 13th July 2024. We…
Continental Books
21st June, 2024
Quaritch has recently released catalogue 1456, which is all about continental books and represents a real team effort. We speak to Alex Day, who joined Q in 2003 with an…
Captain Bligh Part 1: The Devil knows how to row
18th June, 2024
“I have been run down by my own Dogs.” – William Bligh. A portrait miniature in the National Library of Australia depicts a man in full naval regalia, complete with his captain’s…
Serge Plantureux
5th June, 2024
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…
Interview with a Librarian: Dunia Garcia-Ontiveros
22nd May, 2024
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…
Bill Fletcher
10th May, 2024
‘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…
The Cecil Beaton List
23rd April, 2024
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…
Interview with Q at Cambridge University Library
9th April, 2024
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…
Timothy D’arch Smith
27th March, 2024
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…
The Pelster Collection – Illustrated books on birds
27th February, 2024
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…
The Custodian of Dimbola House
14th February, 2024
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…
Libraries Under Attack
7th December, 2023
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…