The Aardvark Blog

Last day of the map exhibition; thinking about 'An Actor's Life'
15/05/2016

I can't believe that today is the last day of this year's map exhibition. Yesterday we had a flurry of visitors and sales, and this morning I was greeted by a couple from the far side of the county who had driven specially to see it. Many questions about whether we plan to do another exhibition next year. All I can say is that I hope to do so, but as ever it is dependent upon finding the maps which is getting increasingly difficult to do.

I am particularly interested in rarer or more unusual maps, so if you have a collection that includes maps of the Marches counties and are thinking about selling, please give me a call.

I am especially interested in large maps such as the Bryant and Kitchin of Herefordshire, and for that matter the Rocque of Shropshire.

But soon the map exhibition will be over, and we are therefore turning our mind towards the next exhibitions. I have talked recently about the SHAW exhibition' Shropshire Boogie-Woogie', but we are also mindful of our exhibition around the life of my stepfather the actor Martin Benson. 'An Actor's Life' brings together a wealth of photograph and other materials. Yesterday I was looking at an original poster for a troop show that Martin performed in  during 1944. A very rare survival I should think.

Martin's life went from Dunkirk to Hollywood, and is one of the most fascinating stories that you could ever come across. I hope that our exhibiton goes some way to capturing this remarkable man.