More than 15,000 visitors and exhibitors packed into Olympia London for the “ best ever ” London Book Fair .
The 6-7 April event was the first live edition of the trade show since 2019 .
Highlights of the RXowned show included talks from authors Maggie O ’ Farrell , Greg James and Chris Smith , Afra Atiq , and illustrator Diane Ewen .
Booker prize-winning Ben Okri gave the keynote speech .
Exhibitors were delighted with the turnout , citing successful meetings with senior buyers .
Heron Publishing – who have been attending the show “ forever ”, told EN : “ We have been here every year going back as far as I can remember . This is definitely the busiest and best I ’ ve ever seen it . We have had a very successful show .”
Show director Andy Ventris said : “ This is the first face-toface edition of The London Book Fair since 2019 . The publishing industry has done some great things in the last three years , but it hasn ’ t met like this . More than 15,000 people from 70 + countries , 850 exhibiting companies from all sectors of the industry , over 100 seminars covering the key issues in the industry today and so many highlights .”
Jenny Rideout , managing director non-consumer for Bloomsbury Publishing said : “ There ’ s a real energy coming from today ’ s show . Almost the relief and the joy of having the in-person collaboration .”
Children ’ s author and
In their good books
After a two-year hiatus , London Book Fair ’ s visitors were reading them loud and clear . EN went to see the writing was on the wall for a successful trade show
Radio One host Greg James said : “ It ’ s great to get together after so long .”
Chris Smith added : “ Roll on 2023 ’ s London Book Fair , can we come ?”
Nielsen Book revealed market analysis at the event , with print books experiencing a surge in popularity .
They found that print saw a resurgence with 213 million books sold in 2020 & 2021 and book sales see year-onyear growth in 2022 Q1 .
Manga , cosy crime and celebrity memoirs were the most popular genres since the pandemic . EN
46 — May