News | January 24, 2013

Barry Humphries Appointed Patron of Honor by the ILAB

Barry Humphries, AO, CBE, the Australian comedian, satirist, artist, and author has been appointed a Patron of Honor by the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB).  The appointment recognises his major contribution to the antiquarian book trade.


Mr Humphries graciously accepted the honorary position following a joint invitation from the Presidents of the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association (ABA) in the United Kingdom and the Australian and New Zealand Association of Antiquarian Booksellers (ANZAAB): Laurence Worms and Sally Burdon.  He joins a select body which includes Sir David Attenborough and Umberto Eco.

Mr Humphries is perhaps best known for his stage and television alter ego Dame Edna Everage.  He is also a film producer and scriptwriter, a star of London's West End musical theatre, an award-winning writer, an accomplished landscape painter and a prominent book collector.  Mr Humphries has spent much of his life immersed in music, literature and the arts.  A self-proclaimed 'bibliomaniac', his house in London supposedly contains some 25,000 books, many of them first editions of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.


The ILAB is a global network for the rare book trade and represents 1860 of the world’s finest antiquarian booksellers in 32 countries.