The Antiquarian Book Company

24/10/2025

Requesting The Honour Of Your Company... to the Brighton book fair! This fantastic engraved invitation to the opening of Brighton Aquarium is from 1872. What makes this one so special is that it was issued to J Wisden, Brighton resident and founder of the legendary Wisden's Cricketing Almanac. We can't go back in time, but we can do the next best thing and find thousands of treasures like this at the book fair. The doors open at 10.00 a.m. (precisely) and you can get a free ticket here on Eventbrite. See you there!
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/.../2025-brighton-book-fair...

26/09/2025

It's time for the Brighton Book Fair again, with yours truly as manager on behalf of the PBFA. Here's the traditional photo of the flyer against a background of annoyingly blurred books! That flyer is a free ticket, by the way, and there are some links to more free tickets below.

At the fair itself you'll find thousands of treasures on every subject under the sun. Big book fairs are the perfect place to find something you never knew existed, something that could change your life. We all spend far too much time looking at screens, but we all know that nothing can beat the serendipity of finding something in the real world. It’s a much more intense and personal experience.

Happily, there’s no artificial intelligence at a book fair, so you can buy the books you want to buy, not the ones the AI wants you to buy. That makes it a moment you’ll remember forever, not instantly forget.

Come along and join us on the day!

You can find a free ticket on Eventbrite, here.

The PBFA Brighton Book Fair is a giant second-hand bookshop in the Main Hall at the racecourse. Join us for a day of bookish delights!

19/07/2025

I have just got back from the PBFA Hay-on-Wye book fair, a great fair in a truly wonderful location - a castle! This was a perfect place to be because it turned out to be the hottest day ever in Wales. The walls were a yard thick and it was nice and cool inside - not to mention all those lovely old books. You can find out more about it here:

Hay-On-Wye is the world’s first ‘book town,’ and a focal point for book lovers from all over the world. It all started in 1962 when Richard Booth realised that an otherwise ordinary town could be rejuvenated if it became a destination for one specific product. (Interestingly, it doesn’t matt...

07/07/2025

Flying saucers? Yes please! I'm a believer, and as you can see here we humans have always had a fascination for the unknown. The hilarious paperback is from 1980, and Ben Jonson's 'Newes From The New Worlde Discover'd In The Moone' is from 1620. And here's the spooky thing - I bought them on the same day, in two separate houses, just a mile apart here on the south coast. You never know what you'll find... You can read more about them here on my website:

It’s intriguing to think that these two very different collections were sitting there, virtually next-door, until I came along to buy them. I’ve been a full time, professional book buyer for a decade now and I’m still amazed at what I find.

11/06/2025

Here's another guide book of a sort. The front cover is rather grandly titled ‘Visitor’s Guide to Bath and District by Electric Car and Motor Bus’ and it was issued by ‘The Bath Electric Tramways Co. Ltd.’ I'm featuring it because I will be heading to Bath on 27th/28th of June for the wonderful - and huge - PBFA Bath Book Fair. You can read more about the booklet and the Bath Fair on my website here...
https://antiquarianbookcompany.com/book/bath-and-district-by-electric-car-in-1913/

21/04/2025

Just a brief post as we are in the middle of a particularly busy time for fairs. As the image suggests I am off to Oxford next week for the two-day PBFA Oxford Premier Fair, Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th April, at Oxford Brookes University, Gipsy Lane, OX3 0BP. Then it’s Lewes, on Saturday 10th May, and TWO big fairs in London the following week.
The book shown here was published by H. Slatter in 1843 and it is surprisingly easy to find. Not, however, in this condition. How can a 182 year old paperback look this new?
You can find out a possible explanation here, on my website:
https://antiquarianbookcompany.com/book/oxford-or-paper-beats-stone/

09/01/2025

Snow fell here in Brighton last night but it has all gone now so I'm heading off to sunny York for the first fair of the year...

The 2025 P.B.F.A book fairs have begun, and there’s a clue in the map: I’m away at York until the 13th at a huge fair at the racecourse. This lovely pictorial map is by Estra Clarke, by the way, and it was published in 1947. I know I’ve said this before but I really do […]

03/11/2024

The seasons change, but book fair season never seems to end! I have had one practically every weekend since September, including the Brighton fair last Saturday. Next week I'm back in London for the ETC Bloomsbury Fair, and then I have a fair every weekend until Sunday 15th December. So I need to buy books! It's always difficult to say just what I buy and do not buy, so the best thing to do is to get in touch and ask. A few photos is always a help too. Remember - if it's on paper, give me a call, you never know...

10/10/2024

This is just a short post to let you know the flyers have arrived and soon I’ll be putting them in the shops all around town. Each one is a free ticket and you can also find a free ticket on our Brighton book fair group here. See you at the fair!

https://www.facebook.com/BrightonBookFair/

22/09/2024

The Brighton Book Fair 2024 is fast approaching and I'll be posting plenty on the fair's own group page in the weeks before the fair. As usual there will be thousands of lovely old books, maps, prints, photographs, postcards, ephemera and more; all brought along by 40 professional dealers. There's a link here so pop over and get your free ticket and all the details...

https://www.facebook.com/BrightonBookFair/

The biggest and best book fair on the south coast is back! On Saturday 26th October 2024 the main hall at Brighton Racecourse will be packed with professional book dealers and thousands of old books, maps, prints, posters, postcards, ephemera and more!