David Mayou began his bookselling career in 1980, at the age of 27, and worked in the trade for 30 years until illness curtailed his activities four years ago. David was inspired to become a bookseller through an unexpected turn of events, shortly after meeting his future wife Charlotte. He had left his home town of Pelsall in the Midlands at the age of 16 for a life of adventure abroad, ending up in London in 1978. Following his introduction to Charlotte's father, the late Sir Roger Cary, an avid collector of academic books, and Roger's friend, military history bookseller Peter De Lotz, they asked him on book expeditions. It was not long before he decided to join the book trade. Roger and Peter introduced David to Paul Minet, who owned Piccadilly Rare Books in London's Sackville Street. Paul hired David, recognising in him a natural empathy with the trade. David worked diligently and was soon buying collections of books for Paul. Paul knew that David would soon want to work for himself and allowed him to publish his first list whilst still working for him. The list proved sufficiently successful for David, with Paul's encouragement, to branch out on his own. David issued his first catalogue of modern first editions in the autumn of 1982. He had a positive response from advertising in trade magazines. David had no higher education to guide him into the world of books but possessed the great self-discipline and reflective powers of the autodidact. He became completely absorbed in the rare book business and started travelling all over Britain, visiting bookshops, book fairs and auctions. He had an extraordinary ability to memorise the catalogues of other booksellers and auction houses. Even in the months leading up to his death his encyclopaedia-like knowledge of books remained undiminished. His election as a member of the ABA in 1986 enabled him to exhibit at major US book fairs and he became a regular at the great fairs in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Boston. He built up a reputation for his knowledge of first editions and books by Sir Winston Churchill He formed a sizeable collection of Churchill material, containing many rare and desirable items, autograph letters and presentation copies, which he sold to a private buyer in 1990. In that same year he embarked on a brief experiment in the retail trade and acquired a shop in Pied Bull Yard in London's Bloomsbury. Unfortunately, this coincided with the recession and he closed the shop two years later. Thereafter he reverted to the style that suited him best: working from an office at home and travelling constantly, concentrating on sales to collectors, libraries and other dealers. Croft, P.J. Autograph Poetry in the English Language, 2 volumes, original cloth, dust-jacket, slipcase, folio, London: Cassell, 1973; Wolff, Robert Lee. Nineteenth Century Fiction, A Bibliographical Catalogue, 2 volumes, original cloth, 8vo, London: Garland Publishing, 1984; and 42 others, approx. bibliography, v.s. (48)
David Mayou began his bookselling career in 1980, at the age of 27, and worked in the trade for 30 years until illness curtailed his activities four years ago. David was inspired to become a bookseller through an unexpected turn of events, shortly after meeting his future wife Charlotte. He had left his home town of Pelsall in the Midlands at the age of 16 for a life of adventure abroad, ending up in London in 1978. Following his introduction to Charlotte's father, the late Sir Roger Cary, an avid collector of academic books, and Roger's friend, military history bookseller Peter De Lotz, they asked him on book expeditions. It was not long before he decided to join the book trade. Roger and Peter introduced David to Paul Minet, who owned Piccadilly Rare Books in London's Sackville Street. Paul hired David, recognising in him a natural empathy with the trade. David worked diligently and was soon buying collections of books for Paul. Paul knew that David would soon want to work for himself and allowed him to publish his first list whilst still working for him. The list proved sufficiently successful for David, with Paul's encouragement, to branch out on his own. David issued his first catalogue of modern first editions in the autumn of 1982. He had a positive response from advertising in trade magazines. David had no higher education to guide him into the world of books but possessed the great self-discipline and reflective powers of the autodidact. He became completely absorbed in the rare book business and started travelling all over Britain, visiting bookshops, book fairs and auctions. He had an extraordinary ability to memorise the catalogues of other booksellers and auction houses. Even in the months leading up to his death his encyclopaedia-like knowledge of books remained undiminished. His election as a member of the ABA in 1986 enabled him to exhibit at major US book fairs and he became a regular at the great fairs in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Boston. He built up a reputation for his knowledge of first editions and books by Sir Winston Churchill He formed a sizeable collection of Churchill material, containing many rare and desirable items, autograph letters and presentation copies, which he sold to a private buyer in 1990. In that same year he embarked on a brief experiment in the retail trade and acquired a shop in Pied Bull Yard in London's Bloomsbury. Unfortunately, this coincided with the recession and he closed the shop two years later. Thereafter he reverted to the style that suited him best: working from an office at home and travelling constantly, concentrating on sales to collectors, libraries and other dealers. Croft, P.J. Autograph Poetry in the English Language, 2 volumes, original cloth, dust-jacket, slipcase, folio, London: Cassell, 1973; Wolff, Robert Lee. Nineteenth Century Fiction, A Bibliographical Catalogue, 2 volumes, original cloth, 8vo, London: Garland Publishing, 1984; and 42 others, approx. bibliography, v.s. (48)
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