Adrian Harrington on the challenges facing antiquarian booksellers

Adrian Harrington is a noted antiquarian bookseller who specializes in first editions by Winston Churchill, Arthur Conan Doyle, Graham Greene, J.K.Rowling and, particularly, Ian Fleming. He is a Past President of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association (ABA), 2001–2003, and the immediate past President of the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB). He has exhibited at major international book fairs around the world, and for the past decade has Chaired Britain's leading rare book event, the summer ABA Book Fair at Olympia, London.

We met late last year at the Toronto Antiquarian Bookfair to talk about the challenges that face the antiquarian book trade, notably an aging book collecting and bookseller population, and the closures of many bricks and mortar stores. I start off by asking Adrian what ILAB and others are doing to try to improve the situation.