ART DEALER

 

On leaving Imperial College, Adrian began buying British Rail lost property - umbrellas, mobile phones, coats, and prams - and selling them at car boot sales around London. He rapidly moved on to antique furniture. 'The trouble was I wasn't very good at it, and after a couple of years things got pretty desperate. To make ends meet I delivered copies of the Yellow Pages. At one point I applied for a job as a pall bearer.' Then in 1998 he sent his first article to the Antiques Bulletin. He soon began writing for most of the antiques and collectables magazines in the UK, as well as several interior design and heritage titles.

 

In 2000 he began selling books online. 'I was lucky I caught the right moment. You could go to an auction and buy a tea chest of books for £10, and then put them online for £10 each. The trouble was I ended up with five garages full with 25,000 books, so I started buying more selectively, and dealing in rare and antiquarian titles.'

 

Among Adrian's specialities were Harry Potter books, leading, on one occasion to an argument with J. K. Rowling. 'I had bought a lot at Sothebys. It was a drawing Rowling had done of a little boy. Also there was hand-coloured invitation to Rowling's daughter's 2nd birthday party (when Rowling was still poor and living in Leith) and a list she had made of potential character names for the first Harry Potter book. When I put them on ebay, Rowling's literary agents demanded they be removed from sale due to 'breach of copyright.' I argued there was no breach of copyright if no pictures of the items appeared and so I sold them without images instead. I was a bit taken aback at how ferocious she was.'

 

In November 2010 one of Adrian's first edition Harry Potter books was stolen from a gallery in Woodstock, a theft which caught the public imagination and was widely reported. After Adrian appeared on ITV and BBC explaining how difficult the book would be to sell on, the thief panicked and abandoned the book in a carrier bag outside a branch of Boots in Abingdon. The thief was subsequently arrested and jailed.

 

Adrian diversified into taxidermy, classic cars, prints, maps, paintings and art, most notably works by Banksy. His sale of a safe by Banksy raised much press interest. He has supplied items to a broad range of clients, including the British Library and the Getty Museum.

 

HISTORIAN

 

In 2011 Adrian 'retired' from dealing to concentrate on writing. His first book, Victoria's Scottish Lion, a biography of Sir Colin Campbell, received glowing reviews. It is the first major biography of Campbell since 1880. 'I first came across him 25 years ago when I was doing History ‘A’ Level,' explained Adrian, 'I couldn’t understand why he wasn’t more famous. Over the years I kept seeing his name in books on the Victorian army, by historians like Trevor Royle and Saul David, and he seemed by far the most brilliant general of his age, yet no one had looked at his career thoroughly for a century or more. Then, as I found out more about him, the idea of writing the story of this working class maverick, riling the Victorian establishment, became irresistible. As one reader said to me, ‘You wonder why you haven’t heard of this man before.’

 

While researching Campbell, Adrian discovered a unique series of letters from Peninsular War officer, Lt Peter Le Mesurier, spanning almost the whole of the conflict, which he edited and has been published by Amberley.

 

Adrian cites Corelli Barnett and Christopher Hibbert as stylistic influences, historians who sought to bridge the gap between academia and popular history. 'I get very tired with the old artificial distinction between academic books which have to be dull as ditchwater, and popular history which in striving to be exciting, fails to be accurate. I don't see why you shouldn't try to be engaging and well-researched.'

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Victoria's Scottish Lion: The Life of Colin Campbell, Lord Clyde. History Press. 2015. p. 496. ISBN 0-75095-685-2.
Through Spain with Wellington: The Letters of Lieutenant Peter Le Mesurier of the 'Fighting Ninth'. Amberley Publishing. 2016. p. 496. ISBN 1-44565-456-3.

 

RECENT ARTICLES
Sir Colin Campbell: Victoria’s Scottish Lion. Durbar (journal of the Indian Military Historical Society). 2015.
Sir Colin Campbell: The general who hated the Victoria Cross. Soldiers of the Queen (journal of the Victorian Military Society). 2015.
Scotland’s Forgotten Field Marshal. Celebrate Scotland. 2015.
Sir Colin Campbell: Command Denied. The War Correspondent (journal of the Crimean War Research Society). 2015.