The Antiquarian Book Fair at Olympia is quite a big event, with antiquarian booksellers from all over the world - literally! The furthest they came to it was from Australia, and you can't get much further than that.
I spent a very pleasant hour or two wandering around looking at all the ancient books and manuscripts - and marvelling at the prices! It was no wonder that they checked your bags for books as you came in, and that most of the exhibits were securely locked behind glass panels. From more recent volumes for under £100, the prices went up to tens of thousands for some of the older and rarer items.
I was especially struck by the absolutely beautiful and intricate drawings in some of the books. The artists must have spent days on each picture, carefully painting things such as rightly coloured flowers and unusual birds and animals.
Most of the books were not the sort of things you would find in a bookshop, even an antiquarian one. In fact, I was surprised at how few of the companies I had ever heard of, even when they were quite local - they obviously don't have premises were one can just go and browse.
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