Tom Porter

Tom Porter was a kindly well respected man who was the chairman and mainstay of the Midlands OBBC for many years. He amassed an amazing collection of Hamiltonia which was sent to auction after his death in 1991. John and Gerald Price, former members of the Midland OBBC, sent me a copy of the catalogue of the sale; you can read it here.

The figures in pencil of the format xxx/xxx are believed to represent price/bidder number.

Darrell Swift

Darrell Swift's enthusiasm for collecting Old Boy's Books endeared him to everyone. Darrell collapsed and died in August 2002 at JFK airport while returning from holiday. He was only 58. You can read more on Darrell's life on the Friars Club website here.

Darrell created Happy Hours and was one of the dwindling number of booksellers specialising in Children's books. A scan of the cover of one of his catalogues is shown to the right.

After his death a list was made up of Darrell's collection and distributed amongst his friends inviting them to make an offer for anything that they were interested in. You can see a copy of that list here.