PETER EMANUEL'S RETIREMENT PARTY

On Monday this week I reminded Peter, who with his brother David ran the hugely successful , and much-missed, London Bookshop chain before it was subsumed into Whitcoulls by Graeme Hart, that it was 11 years that day since his wonderful farewell function at Highwic House in Auckland.

Peter was one of the great characters in the book trade, liked by all, even by publisher's reps when he would refuse to buy the quantity they thought LBS should buy of the next best-seller.
He was a bookseller for 38 years, he served on the Booksellers Association as a councillor for many years, and was always most generous in sharing with new booksellers the knowledge he had gained from years of experience in running one of New Zealand's most successful retail bookselling operations.
I learned much from him when Barry Forbes and I started Beattie & Forbes Bookshop in Napier in 1969.

A devout Wellingtonian for most of his life Peter now lives in retirement in the far north with his wife Carole where they are frequently visited by their children and grandchildren. Good boy Peter.