My peripatetic friend, the author, [he admits in the preface to at least eleven different shop premises] I have known since his early days at Christies, now close to forty years ago. Over the years I have occasionally stopped to read the introductory note to one or other of his catalogues, always with interest for their glimpses of a colleague’s philosophy and way of life. Now Julian has had the brilliant idea to gather them into one volume where they not only introduce his various catalogues, but they provide a subtle continuous narrative of the state of the market and the effect of the internet, the ups and downs of family life and the raising of five children, family pets and family holidays, the occasional notice of various colleagues, and, borne out of his deep knowledge of the subject, his perspicacious asides on modern literature.