Keynote Speaker 2024: Elizabeth Crawford
Elizabeth is enjoying a long career, protean in nature, but always centred on books. After graduating in government and political history from Exeter University, she worked for ten years in-house for Cambridge University Press and J.M. Dent before going freelance as a copyeditor while looking after her three young children. Always a zealous second-hand book buyer, in 1984 she jumped the counter, as it were, by taking a stand at a central London bookfair, selecting as her stock books by and about women, those being her main interest. It was most decidedly not then an area noticed by the mainstream book trade. That small beginning has led to a stream of 212 catalogues (so far), the publication of seven books, numerous contributory chapters to multi-authored volumes, journal articles, and an OBE. An eighth book, for Bloomsbury Academic, is underway. All are associated, one way or another, with the history of the women’s suffrage movement, the initial spark lit by the research necessary for cataloguing material for sale. Her mantra is ‘Just Do It’.
Faculty 2025
Simon Beattie
Simon has been in the book trade since 1998. After a dozen years working for Bernard Quaritch and Simon Finch Rare Books, he set up on his own in 2010, specialising in European (cross-) cultural history. His catalogues have won seven design awards on both sides of the Atlantic. In 2011 the ABA described him as ‘a dealer to watch’ and in 2012 he was included among the winners of the Smarta 100 Awards for ‘the most resourceful, original, exciting small businesses in the UK’
Adam Douglas
Adam started bookselling in 1988 with Simon Finch, after reading English Literature at Bristol University. In 2005 he joined Peter Harrington, where he is now a senior specialist. Adam specialises in early printing, literature, and the history of ideas; he is head of cataloguing at Peter Harrington and author of the company style manual. He has also taught an MA course in screenwriting, and is the author of The Beast Within, a cultural study of the werewolf myth. He is currently chair of the ABA Educational Trust.
James Hallgate
James has been dealing in rare books since 1991 when, aged 16, he attended bookfairs, car boot and jumble sales with his father. He founded Lucius Books in 1993 and consolidated his various careers (restaurateur, artist, print media distribution operative) into full time bookselling the following year. With several decades experience of collection building for private and institutional clients, international bookfair and auction participation and as the proprietor of a busy brick and mortar bookshop, James has built Lucius Books into one of the leading dealers of rare books and manuscripts in the North of England.
Stephen Foster
Stephen is a second-generation bookseller, with 40 years' experience. He has one of the few second-hand bookshops left in West London. From his lovely c18th shop in Chiswick, he sells not only to local customers, but around the world. He also works with the film industry, supplying books for film sets and TV dramas.
Sophie Schneideman
Sophie Schneideman has been a London antiquarian book dealer for over 30 years. She underwent a long apprenticeship at Maggs Bros and since 2007 has been running her own international bookselling business specialising in the Art of the Book, ie private press and illustrated books, fine bindings, artists’ books, printing, lettering and prints. She is a trustee of the Strawberry Hill Collections Trust, an Honorary Fellow of the Designer Bookbinders, serves on the Councils of the ABA and the Friends of the Bodleian Library and is a member of the Grolier Club and the Double Crown Club.
Dr. Hazel Tubman
Hazel works at Maggs Bros., where she specialises in early European printed books and manuscripts (and has a real taste for woodcut illustration, and sixteenth-century Italian printing). Her academic background and professional interests are thoroughly rooted in the material text; prior to working at Maggs, she completed her DPhil. on eighteenth-century diary-keeping and self-accounting practices. Until recently, she co-convened the ABA-IES Book Collecting Seminar series, and is a Trustee of the Willison Foundation Charitable Trust, which awards funding for research into the History of the Book.
Speakers 2025
Lucy Evans
Lucy is the Head of Collections at Senate House Library, University of London. As part of her role there she manages the collections, both modern and special. She has recently been working on an exhibition on the Caribbean Collections at Senate House Library. Lucy began her career at the Bodleian Library as a graduate trainee and has also worked at the Universities of Reading and Liverpool and Lambeth Palace Library. Until January 2023 she was the curator of 18th and 19th century printed books at the British Library. Lucy is also the Chair of the CILIP Rare Books and Special Collections Group.
Rachel Chanter
Rachel is the Marketing Manager at the ABA. She found her way into the rare book trade via commercial bookselling, a stint at a literary magazine, and a brief flirtation with librarianship. She began working at Peter Harrington in 2016, when the idea of marketing in rare books was still a novel concept. After six years, she joined the ABA, where her role encompasses everything from setting up behind-the-scenes library tours to coordinating marketing campaigns for book fairs.
Organiser 2025
Riley Grant
Riley is the Company Secretary and Events Manager for the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association. She took over the management of YABS in 2022.
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