Shopping - Lewes Bookfair

Lewes has a long and proud literary past. Virginia Woolf, of course, frequented the town and once bought a house here, on Pipe Passage, though she never lived there. John Evelyn, the famous diarist, was brought up in Southover Grange. Sax Rohmer, the creator of Fu Manchu, called Lewes home; Jeffrey Farnol, the prolific romantic novelist did too. Tom Paine formulated many of his ideas while working in Lewes and living in Bull House; Samuel Johnson once visited the town, and had lunch in what is now Shelley’s Hotel. He is said to have placed an irritating woman in a cherry tree in the gardens there, who was forgotten about until her cries attracted passers-by.

Of course the streets are full of antique bookshops, and of course there is the ever-popular Lewes Live Literature festival annually attracting top writers to town (whilst others frequent events put on by the Charleston Farmhouse lot). Here’s a little-remembered fact: John Fowles’ ‘The Collector’ is set in the countryside outside Lewes: the creepy protagonist Frederick Clegg makes visits to town to pick up provisions for his hostage. And then there’s the quarterly Lewes Book Fair, the reason for these admittedly prosaic ramblings. Forty stalls run by enthusiasts, most of whom only sell at this fair. First editions, rare local books, a feast for the browser and a serious reason to hit town for the collector. Just don’t expect trashy paperbacks. “You can get them in the charity shops,” says organiser John Beck, a Rupert the Bear expert who has been running the fair since 1992. AL