First the good news. London Book Fair was a triumph. The halls were busy, business was brisk, agents were in abundance, and the Americans came. The parties were generous, the mood upbeat and determined, and even the weather, a challenge for everyone in the UK in early March, was becalmed.

The slightly less good news? The venue was okay… clearly parent company Reed is still struggling with the ongoing renovations at Olympia, but there were demonstrable improvements compared with the past two,  and a sense that, one day, it will be fit for purpose (again).

Unsurprisingly, Reed is clear-eyed about what’s on the table. Go east to ExCel and the experience for visitors will be vastly improved; there will be more space for exhibitors; and better levels of service. As outgoing fair director Adam Ridgway put it when we interviewed him: “You know what I would want? One nice, big, rectangular room that everyone fits in. Bingo, job done.” But it’s not going to happen. It’s a make-do situation of our own doing. We should remember that when being criticial of the infrastructure and its shortfalls.

I am less relaxed about what Ridgway had called “curveballs” going into the show. I’ve often said we are a Chicken Licken kind of business, but I never expected it to be taken literally. For one agent a collapsing ceiling was an unhelpful hazard this year, as was ongoing building work in parts of the rights centre. Another complained of over-booking tables and a day’s lost meetings as a result. The cafés were a write-off – LBF is not the moment to train baristas.

This is an industry in real flux, so I’d like issues such as AI – described in passing by the chair as a “bit controversial” – addressed

I’d like to say that LBF takes such complaints in its stride, but here there is room for improvement. One agent told us she reported her problems with the booking but had received no response by the afternoon of the second day. When our news team sought clarification, we were told there was no evidence of this having happened.

The “Main Stage” was also a miss, both from an organisational and content perspective. The queues to get in meant covering the conversations difficult for journalists – until reserved seating was made available – while the moderation was too often off-point. If you have James Daunt and David Shelley in conversation, please move the chat away from their favourite books. This is an industry in real flux, so I’d like issues such as AI – described in passing by the chair as a “bit controversial” – addressed. Also, 30 minutes is never enough time, and an additional 15 minutes might have allowed a moment for better questions from the floor, too.

These might appear like minor gripes, but actually they speak to something wider. From the summer, LBF will have a new fair director and, in Emma Lowe, one well-known to most of us. Yet, this  latest incumbent becomes the fifth director in as many years, the churn indicative of a show that has  forgotten why continuity matters. 

Which is a shame because LBF does many things very well. It gathers a truly international crowd, and, being the first of the year, helps set the agenda for those that follow. Its lifetime achievement award, given this year to the Publishers Association’s Gloria Bailey, was a moment of joy.

As a past colleague, I am not impartial, but it is hard to think of a better appointment, or one more timely. Lowe is popular, fair-minded, and lives and breathes this business. Her arrival will be the shot of confidence the fair needs as it looks to lean into 2026.