A Trade of Charms
Publisher: Bellew Publishing Co Ltd
Published: May 14, 1992
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 224
ISBN-13: 9780947792985
Subjects: Bookselling And Publishing Industries; Biography: general
First sentence: Claude Gill was a small, modest man. He had been given an OBE, it was rumoured, for organising catering arrangements at the D-Day landings.....
Description: (From dust jacket)"A Trade of Charms" is one man's account of over 25 years spent in the British book trade.David Elliott was a bookseller during the 1960s and 1970s and was apublisher in the 1980s.His career has spanned three decades of enormous change.He has seen a sleepy,comfortable trade try to becomean aggressive modern business.
  Part memoir, part polemic,"A Trade of Charms"questions the logic behind today's insistence on effiiciency and market forces. It is the author's opinion that we are witnessing the destruction of all that was once good about a trade he loved.

One reader's review: What the above doesn't tell you is that this memoir is recalled with a lot of  lot of humour and a dash of biting sarcasm from one who has watched as both bookselling and publishing seem to be self-destruct. Extreme opinions maybe, but as we see the closing of many independent bookstores and the demise of Borders UK and USA, this polemic proves to be quite prescient. A good read for all book lovers and those who regret the disappearance of fine bookstores.
Notes: David Elliott was a bookseller in London for 15 years. He worked for Claude Gill Books and Words and Music. He joined Quartet Books in 1976, where he still remains as a director, and acts as adviser to a number of other publishers. He edited Book Preview for the one year of its existence. "A Trade of Charms" is his first book.