About Us

John picked up his first first edition book at a car boot sale for 10 pence when he was 7 years old. He graduated from the University of Essex with a BA (Hons), followed by an MSc. and PhD at the University of Newcastle, specialising in Sociophonetics.

The choice between academia and the world of rare books was an easy one and John has been buying and selling since 2007. His specialisms are Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels, The Booker Prize and literary fiction, with a particular interest in female writers of the 1950s. John deals with sales and purchases.

His main interests outside books are drinking coffee, swimming, driving slow cars and following the mighty Durham County Cricket Club. John’s favourite book (by a million miles) is Roald Dahl’s ‘Danny The Champion of the World’.

Lottie recently joined us following a career in primary education and brings knowledge of which children’s books really are a good read.

She deals with online selling, marketing, postage. Her interests outside work are reading, drinking plonk, riding and spending time with John and their beautiful sons, Joss and Kit.

She has an eclectic taste in books with her favourites being crime fiction, children’s books and Dick Francis.

Paul and John have been friends for well over 20 years now. He has leant a hand numerous times over the years but became a permanent fixture at the start of 2020.

They have played cricket badly together over the years, played golf badly together over the years, bet on horses badly together over the years, however, they have now been successfully working together.

Paul handles the photography and inventory management of the books over the four retail platforms that they currently sell on.

When not at work Paul’s time is taken up with his young daughter Catherine, and what little time he has left after that is spent watching sport, listening to music and occasionally going for a jog. He is also a fan of Southampton FC (someone has to be…).

Growing up, Nell spent her time in auction houses, or reading, or on occasion, reading in auction houses. Since then, she’s worked in a family-run antique shop and hasn’t stopped reading.

She has a Bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing and a Master’s degree in Writing for Young People from Bath Spa University. Her preferred reading genres are horror, comedy, and anything gothic or spooky.

Nell runs the social media accounts from home but does occasionally leave the house –– usually to visit bookshops.

The business has been operating online for around eight years, with over fifteen years of collecting experience on a range of genres, specialising in literature, crime and detective fiction and adventure novels.

Offering highly collectable first edition volumes, which are signed, rare and which are wholly unique. The aim of the website is to highlight a selection of titles within our stock.

John Atkinson Books are full time book sellers and full members of the ABA (Antiquarian Booksellers Association), ILAB (International League of Antiquarian Booksellers) and P.B.F.A. (Provincial Booksellers Fairs Association) – and are proud to trade under their guidelines.