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committee held its first meeting. Joseph Priestley, the scientist, was chosen as the Secretary and a bookseller, Joseph Ogle, as the librarian. Its existing premises, on Commercial Street, were purpose-built for it at the turn of the 18th century. Among its treasures are Melville’s The Whale , one of only 500 copies of the English edition before he changed the title to Moby-Dick and a first of On the Origin . Its librarian, Jane Riley, is proud to be following in the footsteps of two pioneering wom- en librarians, Mary Ogle (1774–1813) and Mary Robinson (1813–1825). rarely do two pieces of financial news alight upon the book trade in one month. First, which has often been bruited, comes the sale of Bonhams. The private equity firm Epiris, which specialises in invest- ments between £ 80 and £ 500 million, has bought out all the private shareholders and placed the company in its Fund II. Among its previous investments has been the portfolio of magazines of Time Life Inc. UK, which included Country Life , Ideal Home and Horse & Hound . Bruno Vinciguerra, an old Sotheby’s hand, becomes executive chairman. Second is Waterstone’s acquisition of Foyles, which has been in and out of profit for the last few years. Any mention of Foyles is guaran- teed to stir the cockles of all older bookies’ hearts, especially those of publishers’ reps who in Christina’s day (1911–1999) needed to produce only one lofty sentence in praise of a new novelist for an order of twenty copies to be assured. These copies would then disappear into the bowels from which few would emerge until Mr Pordes, that most enterprising of remaindermen, paid a call. However, it was Christina who, by her obstinacy and belligerence, kept the firm going when all around were falling. She hated the unions, hosted literary lunches that were famed the world over and kept nothing in her fridge except champagne and smoked salmon. In this she was of the same mind as François Tru V aut who when writing to his friend Hitchcock in ‘Nouilleyorck’ assured him he’d find the fridge well-stocked, by which he meant champagne and milk – only. the cook anniversary has brought to the surface many interest- ing titbits. One: could he swim? And thus, was he killed because he couldn’t swim to the safety of a boat? Another is a copy of the famous Tupaia chart that Hordern House were selling (no. 44) in their 2018 catalogue. What makes it so interest- ing is that it’s in Russian. ‘[? St Petersburg], [c.1778]’ is how Hordern
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