The man who builds up private libraries - book by rare book

Where do the impeccably selected libraries that appear in society pages and design magazines come from? Many are the work of private library curators - who scour the world to find the books that will both look pleasing on the shelf and reflect the interests of the library's owner.

Kinsey Marable knows the value of the written word, even in the digital age.

"An original first edition of To Kill a Mockingbird was $7,500 in 1999," Marable, a Charlottesville, Virginia-based collector and bespoke librarian, says "and now they cost around $35,000 (£22,200) per copy."

Marable's clients are located in many countries, but it was a trip across the Atlantic long ago when he visited Heywood Hill, a small, rare bookstore in Mayfair, London, and was inspired to get into the business himself.

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