London Book Fair 2015

The sun came out in April for the London Book Fair. The capital was hot for the time of year – and so was Olympia, as the relocated Fair was held under the heat and glare of its graceful glass roof! LBF had returned to this iconic, and recently renovated, London site for the fi rst time since 2005. The beautifully engineered steel and glass vaulted roof provides plenty of daylight to the Grade II-listed Grand Hall. I must say I rather liked being back! Admittedly, the signage was rather confusing, and so were the
transport links, although I had discovered the London Overground which meant my journey from the south was dramatically shorter! I entered the Grand Hall on the fi rst morning from one of the balconies. The view below was truly stunning, a far better space than at Earl’s Court - light, airy and a good place to meet and to network. There were plenty of places to sit and talk, and even at busy times it felt reasonably spacious. HarperCollins Christian had a key position on the main fl oor as part of the parent company. Many HCC titles were heavily trailed on a huge digitised banner running constantly above the stand. The Penguin Random House stand was almost the size of a small country, and as
difficult to get onto as crossing any border! The ‘Market Country’ focus was the very colourful Mexico.

Christian publishers exhibiting this year included Abridge International, Baker Publishing Group, Broadman and Holman, Tyndale House Publishing, Lion Hudson PLC, Muddy Pearl, Hodder Faith, HarperCollins Christian and Xulon Press. I felt really sorry for those American publishers who had booked in as part of the ECPA group. They were situated directly behind an extremely hectic ‘Author HQ’. This location must have been extremely tedious for the ECPA folk due to the adjacent non-stop author seminars, the incessant noise and the loud amplifi cation.

One regret this year was the seminar programme for retailers was quite narrow and lacking in substance, whereas the subject offering for would-be authors was extensive, held in the above-mentioned ‘Author HQ’ area. Overall, a good 2015 show.

Do make a point of visiting LBF at Olympia next year from 12th to 14th April 2016