The rare book world is global, where has this job taken you?

The usual places on the rare book circuit, the U.S.A., most of Europe, Qatar, South Africa, Hong Kong, Tokyo. Alas the stays are too short to really get to more most places. I probably enjoyed Tokyo the most – such a strange, exciting city.

Any advice for budding young collectors?

Learn as much about your subject as you can – knowledge is everything.

If you had to choose one book currently on the shelves at Shapero to add to your own collection, what would that be?

England is blessed with great architecture and I would get years of pleasure from a set of Tipping and Avery’s English Homes.

Your new catalogue Exploration & Travel has recently been published, what are some personal highlights from the collection?

This has been a really difficult catalogue to put together. Buying opportunities have been as rare as the books themselves. Fortunately I was sitting on a collection of books on Ethiopia, in the hope (abandoned) of doing a specialised list. This formed the backbone of the Africa section. I was also lucky enough to buy a good group of Ottoman books. Items I particularly like are the two manuscript/typed items in the Africa section: the Abyssinia travel diary, 1912 (Item 1), difficult to decipher but very evocative of the time; and Item 44, Press, A banker in Abyssinia (item 44), very readable and really should be published. It really captures the tension between the Italians and the British.