Philip Bell joined the book trade in 1985 working as a bookseller for Dillons of Gower Street.  He subsequently managed a number of bookshops for both Dillons and Waterstones before joining Blackwell''s in 2002, where he now manages their world- famous bookshop in Oxford''s Broad Street.
Favourite books: Weymouth Sands by John Cowper Powys, The Growth of the Soil by Knut Hamsun and just about anything by Henry James. His favourite poets include mainly 20th Century Americans, notably John Berryman, Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Bishop.