Monday, Aug 25, 2025

[Corrected 27/08/25]

Last week we celebrated that Archives Fine Books has been continuously trading in Brisbane’s Central Business District for 40 years since 1985. To mark the milestone we offered a program of five events over three evenings and we were delighted with the turnout from our community of book lovers.

AUGUST 21: Brisbane

We opened on Thursday evening with a focus on Brisbane. Fryer Librarian Simon Farley (University of Queensland) gave a moving talk about his journey working in some of the flagship 'memory institutions' in Queensland. As he recalled the memorable people he's met and the stories he's been privileged to bear witness to and help preserve, he took us on a journey that folded together the ordinary and extraordinary in layers of relationships over time.

Then Trent Dalton (Boy Swallows Universe; Love Stories; All our Shimmering Skies) and Professor Anna Johnston (UQ) spoke about how the local Brisbane landscape is a rich resource for writers past, present and emerging. Led by these two born-and-bred locals 'Brisbane as a literary landscape' fired our imaginations and got everyone talking about the stories we love, the styles of writing Brisbane produces and possibilities for the future. There were some astute observations from the audience and one attendee confessed they would like to toss in their career to go study local literature with Anna!

AUGUST 22: Book Collecting

The second night focused on book collecting and featured two interstate guests who shared aspects of their different but related collections.

Professor Chris Browne talked about the illustrated editions in his Jane Austen collection and described in some detail what they reveal about the world of the author and also where illustrators get it completely wrong! Fun facts:Jane Austen's name first appeared on the title page of a French translation of Persuasion (1821) and the first illustrated Jane Austen novel was also that same French translation of Persuasion: La Famille Elliot . Chris is not only intimate with the contents of every Austen novel but with the publishing history of each one and the many illustrators that have given shape to her characters. His talk was entertaining and breathtaking in its scope.

Jennifer Kloester (PhD) is recognised as the world expert on 20^th century authoress Georgette Heyer, who was herself a fan if Jane Austen and who created the ‘Regency Romance’ genre (think Bridgerton if you need a popular culture reference). Jenn gave an equally fascinating and entertaining talk about Heyer’s prodigious output, in depth research, life and circumstances and, perhaps most interestingly, how the information on the dustjackets suggest she was read by men and women alike and considered a worthy literary companion to writers such as D.H. Lawrence, W.S. Maugham, Graham Greene, and J.B. Priestley. Publishers today are possibly doing themselves a financial disservice by marketing Heyer as “chick lit” and cutting her contemporary audience in half.

AUGUST 23: Celebration soirée and two exciting launches

Saturday night saw 30 guests gather in the back room of Archives Fine Books to celebrate forty years of Archives Fine Books meeting the needs of Brisbane (and beyond) readers and collectors. We were thrilled to have Sean Phillips (Gotcha By The Books) open the formalities with a remembrance of his time at the bookstore in the 1980s. He promised to share three things that the audience probably didn’t know about the bookstore and he delivered with humour and style. One involved a music megastar, one involved a sheet of water, and one involved someone’s entire life savings.

John Mills Himself Legacy Project

(1924 photo of John Mills' apprentices, including his two sons, John and Sam)

These stories will be recorded for posterity in the John Mills Himself Legacy Project, a collaboration between Archives Fine Books and The House Detective. We’ve asked the House Detective (Marianne Taylor) to research 40 Charlotte St, Brisbane. Built in 1919-20 by local printer John Mills (Himself) the building is now heritage listed and home to several boutique businesses including Archives Fine Books. Marianne, spoke about her work as an architectural historian and some of the interesting facts she has already discovered about the building and the printer who built it.

The aim is to produce a book about the history building and some of the businesses and personalities that have inhabited "John Mills Himself" over the past century so that future historians, architects, and book lovers will have a link to the history of the building, the printer who built it and the bookstore that has inhabited it for (almost) 40 years. We’re running an all-or-nothing Pozible Campaign to fund this project so FOLLOW THIS LINK to read more about the project and the great rewards we are offering to everyone that supports the campaign.

Marianne delighted everyone with her passion and storytelling and was quietly mobbed afterwards by members of the audience with stories to share – some of whom had worked at Archives Fine Books under Emmanual Meschers or later owners.

The Archives Fine Books National Book Collecting Prize

We were also delighted to announce on Saturday evening that due to a generous sponsor the national book collecting prize we established in 2020 as an occasional prize is now on firm footing.

Moving forward the Archives Fine Book Collecting Prize for a young Australian collector to the age of 35 will be awarded annually.

Applications for the 2026 prize are now open and the award winning collection will be announced in March 2026.  The prize includes a cash component plus travel to one of two ANZAAB Rare Book Fairs in 2026, vouchers to spend at the fair and at Archives Fine Books, and membership with the Bibliographic Society of Australia and New Zealand, and the Book Collectors’ Society of Australia.

If you would like more information about the prize and how to apply please email dawn@archivesfinebooks.com.au