On this page are links to various articles, prefaces and talks on books, manuscripts and the marketplace etc that I have written or given which may be of interest (I retain the copyright in all of them).
1. NATURE AND AIMS of Roy Davids Ltd
2. THE SACRED DUTY TO GET IT RIGHT - a profile of Roy Davids by Michael Holman (Antiques Trade Gazette, 11 November 2000)
3. COLLECTING MANUSCRIPTS - why this is a worthwhile and worthy pursuit, with some thoughts on value and pitfalls and how to avoid the latter.
4. COMING TO TERMS WITH MANUSCRIPTS - dealing with the terminology and ethics of descriptions -- the unedited version.
5. MANUSCRIPTS: AN ENDANGERED SPECIES? - the future of the past - with emphasis on why people collect manuscripts - published in the journal of the Manuscript Society in Spring 2002.
6. THINGS CAN ONLY GET BETTER - the future of manuscript collecting, published in the festschrift for Anthony Rota, 2002.
7. 'AUCTIONEERING: whence and whither', published in American Book Prices Current in 1994 - a commentary on the changes in the auction process and missions of auction houses over the previous fifty years.
9. ILABTALK - the text of an address given at the Congress of the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers in Edinburgh in September 2000 on the subject of the relationship between the trade and the auction houses, which follows on the subject of the previous piece.
10. ABATALK 1989 - the text of a talk (related to 7 and 8) which I gave to the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association in 1989
11. WHY ARCHIVES ARE SOLD ABROAD- an article published in The Author in Summer 2002 explaining why so many modern archives are sold to institutions outside the United Kingdom.
12. ENGLISH LITERARY MANUSCRIPTS - published in 1978.
13. SHAKESPEARE - an unpublished appreciation of Ted Hughes's Shakespeare and the Goddess of Supreme Being (1999)
14. MEMORIES, Reflections, Gratitudes - a celebration of Ted Hughes.
15. BEING - an attempt at a contribution to a philosophical problem which may, however, create a psychological dimension.
16. AUTUMN COMING.
17. SHEEP IN FOG - an appreciation of Ted's Hughes's essay 'Sylvia Plath: The Evolution of "Sheep in Fog"'.
19. MANUSCRIPT POEM.
20. INSURANCE AT AUCTION.
21. INSURANCE AT AUCTION - a followup letter.
23. REVIEW OF ENGLISH MANUSCRIPT STUDIES 1100-1700, volume 8, The British Library, 2000
24. REVIEW OF ENGLISH MANUSCRIPT STUDIES 1100-1700, volume 9, The British Library, 2000.
25. MENORCA
27. WHITE NOISE
29. SOUTHERN SPAIN
30. SILENT MOVIE?
31. PORTRAITS
32. FISH
33. BEE
34. TED HUGHES TABLETALK - A COUNTERBLAST
35. A RIDE TO KIVA AND OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
37. WILD GOOSE
39. JOHN BETJEMAN
40. W.H. AUDEN
41. RUPERT BROOKE
42. JOHN DONNE
43. LEIGH HUNT