PBFA Book Fair 2023

 After an hour-long journey from Papplewick to the conference centre in London, we were greeted by several porters who speedily took away our load on carts, before leading us to where our stall actually was (number 55, in the centre of the room). From there, we began the process of setting up our stall, which took much longer than any of us anticipated. Following a brief lunch interval, we were split up into three groups once the fair had actually begun to prevent a rabble of Papplewick boys swarming some unlucky customers! Switching every 60 minutes, one was on stall engaging in conversation with our buyers, one was off stall to check out other stalls with incredible items such as an £8500 pound first edition of The Hound of Baskervilles and including other first editions and signed copies of creditable authors such as J.R.R Tolkien, Beatrix Potter, and Roald Dahl. To top it off there was a first edition of The Tiger Who Came to Tea for a whopping 10,000 pounds, while also hoping to catch the attention of foreign visitors! The final group, however, was allowed the luxury of a sit-down and break, before doing what they wanted to do for the hour. This went on for several hours, with our stock of books on such diverse subjects as poetry, 19th century sheet music, crime and detection, French fashion and even children’s fiction slowly diminishing as time went by, before the time finally when we were allowed a dinner break. Where we bumbled up to the upstairs pub and gorged ourselves on pizza, and gallons of coke. After that, the time had come when we had to put away our stock and say goodbye to the place we had spent so many hours selling books at. We sold an array of crime fiction, including an 1899 US First Edition of the Amateur Cracksman by E. W. Hornung which was sold at £40, a 1955 first edition of The Quiet American by Graham Greene which was sold for £25, a 1928 first edition of Ashenden or The British Agent BY W. Somerset Maugham for £50 and a 1976 first edition of Something Nasty in The Woodshed by Kyril Bonfiglioli for £40. We should like to thank Miranda and all the other PBFA dealers for inviting us, making us welcome and being very kind and helpful through this amazing experience.