I keep saying what a super place is the London Book Fair. It is a different world. Everything works. Everybody is happy to be here. Everybody is hugging somebody, somebody they hadn’t seen since the Book Fair last year. Maybe I’m exaggerating slightly and it’s not "everybody." But you know what I mean.

A large part of the reason it all works so well is down to Midas Public Relations, and their co-directors Steve Williams and Tony Mulliken, and their staff who make us all so welcome.

This year, unfortunately, was one of tragedy, caused by the volcanic ash that kept so many planes grounded, and so many people away. Our good friend Aaron Silverman, whose shooting and fishing photographs have graced this magazine on many occasions, got his books over, but didn’t manage to get here himself.

Suddenly, by their absence, one could see the extent to which foreign visitors had filled this place to overflowing in the past . It was sad to see the empty stands, and to see other stands manned, but without books.

But the Russians were here, in large numbers, showing their books, assisted by numerous Russian-speaking young Brits; their parents and their country can be very proud of them.

It was here that I encountered Winner, (the name she uses in England) a charming young lady from China, doing post-graduate work at the University of Westminster. Burdened by a giant Nikon camera, she was intrigued by everything she saw around her.

I gathered together a fair number of books on shooting and fishing, reviewed here. We were pleased to see Julie Sankey again, her Crowood Press publishing doing really splendid works.

© Sidney Du Broff 2010