Brief Encounter

At Barter Books, Alnwick, Northumberland, UK.

I'd made a bee-line for the photography section and ended up chatting with Eric, a retired farmer from Berwickshire in the Borders.

To cut a long story short (we nattered for at least an hour), he's got a collection of twenty classic Leicas, had photographed Scottish Formula One driver, Jim Clark, throughout his career until his fatal accident in 1968.

"I nearly got my hands on a Leica 1 recently, but someone nabbed it before I could!".

Wonderful guy with lots of first-hand advice about Ls and what old books to look out for. He's got a load of Nikon stuff too, but prefers not to use it...

We exchanged addresses and agreed to keep in touch.