When you don't know where to start, start at the beginning. I didn't know where to start my learning journey through the world of rare books so I started broad and at the beginning: books, bookshops, and the people who populate them.

On a cold, grey London night at the end of November 2024 I discovered, thanks to the Hatchard's mailing list, a bibliophile's dream: a free event called Author's Night. If you think a book signing event by a favourite author sounds good, imagine four floors of one of the most beautiful and historic bookshop in London populated with authors of all shapes and sizes ranging from Mary Beard to Jeffrey Archer; from Louis de Bernieres to Sebastian Foulkes, and plenty more besides. Then imagine accidentally ending up having dinner afterwards with one of those authors. I was lucky enough to live that instead of imagine it. Not bad for a Wednesday night.

Admittedly, I had already met Louis de Bernieres at the World of Words Gstaad Literature Festival - full disclosure: I founded that festival in 2021. I was thrilled to see him again at Author’s Night and as he sat patiently alongside his fellow bestselling authors signing readers’ books, I was reminded how many of the authors we so admire are often very accessible and down-to-earth. With neither of us having any plans for after the event we decided to grab a bite nearby and ended up at at the storied Wolseley restaurant on Piccadilly where we talked of this and that; I won’t reveal the contents of a private conversation but let’s just say it was a fascinating mix of topics covering books, authors, literary events, writing, and private life updates.

As followers and attendees of WoW Gstaad will know, the festival’s mission is: “Preserving literature, supporting writers, encouraging readers”. You may imagine therefore my joy at seeing that night at Hatchard’s that there remains a healthy slice of society still happy to queue up at the tills, spending their hard-earned money buying ink on paper for the joy of learning, the joy of being inspired, and in support of today's brave wordmongers. Kids in a candy store.

Author’s Night may not have been specifically an education about rare books but it was certainly a foot in the door of the book-world. Sometimes that’s the starting point of an informal education - surrounding yourself with people who know more than you, meeting authors, meeting booksellers, browsing and, if you're lucky enough, having dinner with Louis de Bernieres. But even if you don’t end up at dinner with an author, one thing is certain: you’ll find that the people who work at bookshops and attend literary events are friendly, curious and, let’s face it, delightfully quirky.

Stay with me as the journey continues,

Yours Truly ,

Thomas (unedited)

Top Tips: (1) sign up to free mailing lists, (2) go to as many events as you can, (3) ask as many questions as you can.

Be curious.