The Aardvark Blog

Frankfurt Book Fair 2026, BRILLIANT AARDVARK POP-UP SHOP
14/10/2026

After a 1,000 kilometre drive the Aardvarks have returned from the 2026 Frankfurt Bookfair, and are glad to be back in the beautiful quiet Marches. I always enjoy our yearly trip to Germany, but I am not sure if I would drive again as the motorways through Belgium and Germany are incredibly busy and fast, and despite Ethel's amazing driving ( she does all of the continental trucking ), it just is a very stressful process with cars and lorries as far as the eye can see.

However we did get to stop off in Bonn on the way down, and to enjoy one of the most liveable cities I have ever visited.  Ethel has been posting stills and videos from our Road Trip on Facebook and Instagram, so for a full flavour of events do look at our Aardvark account.

The museum at Bonn was hosting an extraordinary August Macke exhibition, and looking at the stunning canvases I realised how little exposure I had had to non-Franz Marc German expressionism. Seeing in books is great, but the colours of these work need really to be experienced in the flesh. 

This year the Frankfurt fair was being put on in a different and much more compact layout, which meant some areas were rammed with people, and others  - particularly the higher levels - were mostly quite quiet. On the plus side however this meant that I was able to have a really good look round other publisher's stands and the result was  one of the best hauls of titles we have ever brought back. I cannot wait to get into the boxes when they reach us next week,and the exciting thing is that you will have the chance to see many of these in person, BECAUSE ......

AARDVARK BOOKS ARE DOING A POP-UP BOOKSHOP- courtesy of the brilliant folks at the Sidney Nolan Trust (see left Ethel's drawing of our Broadsheep advert done on a German place mat ).

Mark the date of Friday 4th of December in your calendar now as from 4-9pm,  Aardvark will be taking over the historic Rodd Court Library to present the best of the best new titles that we picked up at the fair. Absolutely amazing works on textiles, wood working, ceramics, fine art and much much more. Plus all the lastest books from Aardvark favourite publishers such as Batsford and the British Library.

Entry and Parking are free and even better news is that Charlie from the Sidney Nolan Trust will be running a bar for those who would like to let the Christmas spirit loose early!

We have much more exciting stuff to announce regarding our first pop-up bookshop, and Ethel is preparing a newsletter to go out to all subscribers. I cannot tell you how much I have missed meeting our customers face to face, so I hope many of you will come out to see us on Friday the 4th. Needless to say, that for all those of you who have been missing your favourite canine, Byron will also be in attendance.