AUTHOR TALK with Neil Lanham author of 'I Bid You Farewell - The life of an auctioneer

Name: AUTHOR TALK with Neil Lanham author of 'I Bid You Farewell - The life of an auctioneer
Start: 2025-11-12T14:00:00+00:00
Location: 1a Bells Lane, Glemsford (next to the Spar) , CO10 7QA Glemsford, United Kingdom

Schedule

Wed, 12 Nov, 2025 at 02:00 pm

UTC+00:00

Location

1a Bells Lane, Glemsford (next to the Spar) , CO10 7QA Glemsford, United Kingdom | Sudbury, EN

We are very pleased to welcome Neil Lanham author of 'I bid you farewell' to Glemsford Library
Tickets are £5 each and available from the library (cash only please)
Neil will be talking about his book and life as an auctioneer and answering your questions. There will be copies of his book to purchase.
'I Bid You Farewell' captures the drama, wit and wisdom of a lifetime in the antiques trade. Set against the backdrop of Suffolk’s market towns and quiet villages, Lanham charts an era of remarkable change in Britain’s auction houses, from the austere post-war years through the booming era of the 1980s.
This is the story of a young auctioneer, starting at seventeen in a cattle market, qualifying and then buying a rundown rural auction business. Readers will discover how, from a standing start, with no telephone in his hired hall, Lanham achieved over a hundred world-wide record prices of fine art at auction. He explains the complex psychology of dealers and collectors and reveals the stories behind these extraordinary prices. Being on his own, using his personal observation, he was able to speedily change course to rapidly unfolding new markets caused firstly by Harold Wilson devaluing the pound and then Margaret Thatcher selling off ‘the family silver’. It is a true insight into the secrets of the auctioneer’s mind. Written as an amusing whole-life adventure of numerous stories, it shares much knowledge, wisdom and humour.
Rich in character and incident, with an insider’s eye for detail and a storyteller’s gift for bringing the past to life, Lanham shares the secrets of the trade while documenting a vanishing world of traditional market towns and autonomous local businesses.