Specialist & Author Talks
Collecting the Medieval Book in the Industrial North West
Friday 7th June 4.00pm
Cynthia Johnston from the IES sheds light on the region’s 18th and 19th century collectors, and the collections of medieval material held by the Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery, Blackburn Public Library and the Harris Museum, Preston.
Unreal City: Journey to the Dark Side of London
Saturday 8th June 12.00pm
Award-winning photographer Adriaan van Herdeen reveals how T S Eliot’s The Waste Land was translated into 85 photos of London for his new book Unreal City. Read more here.
'The Natural History': the oldest surviving encyclopaedia from the Graeco-Roman world
Saturday 8th June 1.00pm
Daisy Dunn author of In The Shadow of Versuvius will be discussing Pliny the Elder’s celebrated book, The Natural History, which is the oldest surviving encyclopaedia from the Graeco-Roman world. He used at least 2000 different sources to write it and covers everything from the efficacy of millipedes and smashed snails in healing ulcers to the history of art and correct way of planting grapevines. The talk will open with his death in the catastrophic volcanic eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79, which his nephew Pliny the Younger survived. Copies of her book will be available to purchase at the fair.
Translating Friedo Lampe’s 'At the Edge of Night'
Saturday 8th June 2.00pm
Bookseller Simon Beattie will talk about his recent translation of Friedo Lampe’s novel At the Edge of the Night, the author’s first book which was banned by the Nazis in 1933 and published only in expurgated form after the War due to its homoerotic content and the depiction of an interracial liaison between a black man and a German woman. Later described as an early magical realist, Lampe (1899–1945) was a disabled gay writer who somehow survived the Third Reich only to be tragically shot six days before the end of the War by Russian soldiers who mistook him for a member of the SS. Simon’s ‘brilliant new translation, now unexpurgated, captures the beguiling beauty and intelligence’ of the original (NB Magazine) and is the first appearance of anything by Lampe in English.
Digital Perspectives on Books and Readers
Saturday 8th June 3.30pm
Dr Christopher Ohge, Lecturer in Digital Approaches to Literature, will show some of the new digital initiatives at the Institute of English Studies. From courses on Digital Approaches to Book History at the London Rare Books School, and new research on digital scholarly editions and text analysis of authorial marginalia, these developments demonstrate the emerging trends for studying the physical book with new computational methods.
Firsts Steps to a Collection: Find Your Niche with The Book Collector
Saturday 8th June - 4.30pm
The Book Collector presents a panel discussion led by Michael Caines of the TLS offering expert advice on how to start a collection.
The Noblest Monument of English Prose: Early Printings of the Bible in English
Saturday 8th June - 5.45pm
Benjamin Crawford of the International Society of Bible Collectors will discuss collecting the Bible from Gutenberg to the Jerusalem Chamber.
The Evolving State of Internet Bookselling with Official Partner Biblio
Sunday 9th June 11.30am
A lively panel discussion led by Biblio CEO Brendan Sherar and Luke Lozier, Principal at Bibliopolis.
Remaking Folklore in the Modern Age
Sunday 9th June 3.30pm
Sophie Mackintosh, author of The Water Cure which was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize discusses our enduring fascination with folklore, and the stories that have influenced her work such as the Mabinogion and traditional Welsh fairy tales. Copies of her book will be available to purchase at the fair.