Last Thursday night was the launch of the annual Melbourne Rare Book Week (23 July – 1 August) and bookings are now live! via the website https://rarebooksmelbourne.com/ You can view the program online or pick one up at various places around Melbourne. They will be at the the City of Melbourne Libraries as well as being distributed through cafe etc in the suburbs, Let me know where you see them !

The launch was a meeting for thorganisers, organisatioons hosting event, and speakers. I have been involved since 2015 and it is wonderful catchup with so many familiar faces and meeting some new people too.

I sat at the side of the room for a short time and sketched,

I am very honoured to be part of the MRBW family. My sketches are on the website and throughout the program (not the cover) and in the promotions for Melbourne Rare Book Fair, which is at the and of Melbourne Rare Book Week.

We had an interesting and entertaining talk by Simon Plant about Barry Humphries as a book collector..

I take the week off work and sketch at as many events as I can attend. I have looked tnrough the program and i will be at at least 21 events.of the 43 . The talks usually go for one hour and I stand at the back of the room and sketch the audience and room.

I am presenting a talk (so I wont be sketching at it) on the rare and historic dictionaries in the Supreme Court Library collection! There will also be a displayfor the month of July. I am going back to writing that as soon as I press the Publish button on this!

Many of you may have seen this on my Instragram and Facebook site during the week.This blog is for those family and friends who are not on social media.

Let me know if you have any quesiotns about Melbourne Rare Book Week.