10 - Viva Lewes

lewes book fair
Fact or fiction? You choose
Once every few months, just before 10am on a
Saturday, a small queue forms at the Fisher Street
entrance of Lewes Town Hall. On first inspection
this assembly might seem entirely respectable: a
polite concatenation of beige middle age. But look
closer, and you’ll glimpse a fevered anticipation in
their eyes…
They’re queuing for the Lewes Book Fair, a staple
of the local bibliophile’s calendar. Held five times a
year, the fair is a chance for book hounds to peruse
the wares of a variety of secondhand booksellers,
big and small, all hawking books on subjects as varied
as topography, history, local interest and nature,
not to mention fiction – first editions and paperbacks
a-plenty – poetry and assorted paraphernalia.
If it’s the printed word you’re after, the Lewes Book
Fair caters to all.
Set up by Lewesian John Beck in 1992, the fair
began on a twice-yearly basis with twenty stallholders.
These days it’s more like forty, with between
400 and 500 punters attending each fair from as
far afield as London and Southampton, as well as
Lewes and elsewhere in Sussex. The most recent
event, in May, was typically crowded; an hour in
it became tricky to navigate the two long aisles of
stalls there were so many people poring over old
tomes. But I did spot a signed first edition of Conan
Doyle’s 1891 historical adventure The White Company
(£500), a very scare first of David Nobbs’s The
Death of Reginald Perrin (£165) and, more in my
price range (so of course I bought ’em), a book club
edition of John Gardner’s first Bond novel Licence
W W W. V i Va L E W E s . C o M
l i t e r a t u r e
Photo by rachel day
Renewed (a steal at two quid) and an early printing
of Dennis Wheatley’s innovative 1936 crime fiction
dossier Murder off Miami (£6).
The Lewes fair is just one of many such independent
events held up and down the country every
weekend – on average sixty per month – but having
attended a good number in other parts of the UK,
I can report that ours remains among the best. I
asked John – who runs the fair with his daughter
Melanie and friends, and who is an avid book collector
himself – why that is.
“I think Lewes is still popular as we regularly get
good footfall and bargains are always to be had,”
he told me. “The book trade is suffering from the
internet and e-books, but fortunately many buyers
still like the tactility of a book, which to many is a
piece of art in its own way. Also, by having the book
in your hand you can better judge the condition and
‘value for money’ if one is a collector.”
John’s dream is to instigate a Lewes Book Week,
based around the fair but featuring “book readings,
book signings and talks on the literary heritage that
Lewes has. Hay-on-Wye have a very successful annual
event, which is well hyped, and Hay is a place
with no real literary history at all. So Lewes has a
great advantage in many respects.”
Indeed it does. I feel a campaign coming on…
Nick Jones
The next Lewes Book Fair, as ever in association
with local cat rescue charity Paws & Claws, takes
place at Lewes Town Hall, Fisher Street entrance,
on 6th August, 10am.
4 1