Patrick McGahern has been operating an antiquarian bookshop in Ottawa, Canada’s capital, since 1969. Today it continues to thrive under the management of Patrick’s son Liam. The store specializes in Used and Rare Books, Canadiana, Americana, Arctic, Antarctic, Travel, Natural History & Voyages, Illustrated & Plate Books, Rare Books, Irish and Scottish History and Literature.

I met Patrick via Zoom to celebrate his 51 years in business, to try to learn some of what he’s learned over the years, and to talk about some of the more colourful bookseller colleagues in the trade, including Grant Woolmer, Jerry Sherlock and Bernard Amtmann