Letter


Issue 6,101 On the cover


Cover image by William


Waterworth


LBF had its curveballs but progress is being made Philip Jones


Editor, The Bookseller F


The official charts This week’s number ones


irst the good news. London Book Fair was a triumph. The halls were busy, business was brisk, agents were in abundance, and the Americans came. The parties were generous,


the mood upbeat and determined, and even the weather, a challenge for everyone in the UK in early March, was becalmed. The slightly less good news? The venue was


okay… clearly parent company Reed is still struggling with the ongoing renovations at Olympia, but there were demonstrable improve- ments compared with the past two, and a sense that, one day, it will be fit for purpose (again). Unsurprisingly, Reed is clear-eyed about


what’s on the table. Go east to ExCel and the experience for visitors will be vastly improved; there will be more space for exhibitors; and better levels of service. As outgoing fair director Adam Ridgway put it when we interviewed him: “You know what I would want? One nice, big, rectangular room that everyone fits in. Bingo, job done.” But it’s not going to happen. It’s a make-do situation of our own doing. We should remember that when being criticial of the infrastructure and its shortfalls.


Contents In this week’s magazine p40


I am less relaxed about what Ridgway had


called “curveballs” going into the show. I’ve often said we are a Chicken Licken kind of busi- ness, but I never expected it to be taken literally. For one agent a collapsing ceiling was an unhelp- ful hazard this year, as was ongoing building work in parts of the rights centre. Another complained of over-booking tables and a day’s lost meetings as a result. The cafés were a write- off – LBF is not the moment to train baristas. I’d like to say that LBF takes such complaints


in its stride, but here there is room for improve- ment. One agent told us she reported her problems with the booking but had received no response by the afternoon of the second day. When our news team sought clarification, we were told there was no evidence of this having happened. The “Main Stage” was also a miss, both from


an organisational and content perspective. The queues to get in meant covering the conversa- tions difficult for journalists – until reserved seating was made available – while the modera- tion was too often off-point. If you have James Daunt and David Shelley in conversation, please move the chat away from their favourite books. This is an industry in real flux, so I’d like issues such as AI – described in passing by the chair as a “bit controversial” – addressed. Also, 30 minutes is never enough time, and an additional 15 minutes might have allowed a moment for better questions from the floor, too. These might appear like minor gripes, but


This is an industry in real flux, so I’d like issues such as AI – described in passing by the chair as a “bit controversial” – addressed


actually they speak to something wider. From the summer, LBF will have a new fair director and, in Emma Lowe, one well-known to most of us. Yet, this latest incumbent becomes the fifth direc- tor in as many years, the churn indicative of a show that has forgotten why continuity matters. Which is a shame because LBF does many things


very well. It gathers a truly international crowd, and, being the first of the year, helps set the agenda for those that follow. Its lifetime achievement award, given this year to the Publishers Association’s Gloria Bailey, was a moment of joy. As a past colleague, I am not impartial, but


it is hard to think of a better appointment, or one more timely. Lowe is popular, fair-minded, and lives and breathes this business. Her arrival will be the shot of confidence the fair needs as it looks to lean into 2026.


Books Author Profiles: Robert Macfarlane Daria Lavelle


PRINT E-BOOK AUDIO Average selling price Year/Year rise £8.80 +2.2%


New titles: Children’s, Intro Children’s, Top 10 Children’s, Listings Non-Fiction, Intro Non-Fiction, Top 10 Non-Fiction, Listings


News Round-Up London Book Fair 2025


6 8


10-11 12-13 14-22 24-25 26-27 28-37


Charts


Classified Jobs in Books


38-39 40-47 48


Bologna Children’s Book Fair Special Introduction


p8 Agents’ Hotlists Company Spotlights 3 4-11 12-18 05


Welcome


CAROLINE BAPTISTA


Comment


Leader


21.03.25


Robert Macfarlane discusses the intrepid water-borne journeys that inspired his bold new work of non-fiction, as he


asks: is a river alive? PP06-07


Streaming ahead


Taste test Daria Lavelle


connects food,


loss and longing in her delicious debut novel


Fun at the fair


A special look at the upcoming Bologna


Children’s Book Fair


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