AARL

Obituaries

Miles and Briony Blackwell

Miles Blackwell was known to and admired by many Australian librarians of my era. From the time he joined the family firm (known affectionately as 'The Firm' to the family and 'Blackwells' to the rest of us) in 1966 until his untimely death in September this year, Miles Blackwell, even in his early retirement, made his mark on Australian libraries. Moreover he kept in touch with many of us who came to regard him as far more than a business associate. He was indeed a friend. He was also the epitome of bonhomie and good will.

From my first meeting with him in the mid 1970s, through being the recipient in 1979 of his great generosity as host at Dry Leys - his home near Oxford - a subsequent visit to Oxford, his many visits to Australia, including a memorable one to Darwin for the LAA conference in1986, right up to receipt of what was to become his last Christmas card - always with 'and love' added in his blue-inked handwriting to the printed message - Miles was a man whose company was to be enjoyed. For so many of us the business relationship was underpinned by the warmth of his affection for Australia and what he saw as its occasional quirkiness. (The old Darwin Hotel beer lounge was typical of the kind of place he savoured in Australia).

There are many anecdotes several librarians have enjoyed recounting to each other after hearing of his death. All have illustrated his love of life and his great interest in the people who became his customers but for whom he always displayed a generous and gentlemanly regard, far removed from the tag of 'commerce'' despite that being the heart of the Blackwell's business from its foundation in 1879. It is no exaggeration to claim that Miles Blackwell re-defined customer service without explicitly doing so. He became the quintessential library supplier.

In 1974 Miles became director of Blackwell's Mail Order Service and it was through this aspect of the business that he became well known to hundreds of acquisitions staff and their chief librarians in libraries all over the world, Australia having a special place in his affections.

The business he managed was highly efficient. It provided advance bibliographic data for selection purposes well ahead of rival firms and, later, catalogue data. He recruited able staff who seemed equally committed to the development of collegiate relationships with the Australian librarians whose libraries their role was to supply with materials from 'overseas'. Blackwell's Australian customer libraries were from across the university and research library sector, the state and national libraries and some special libraries.

Miles Blackwell rewarded Australian librarians in a number of ways. Not only was his home often available for visiting librarians as a wonderful residence for short stays but he saw to the establishment of the annual BH Blackwell Fieldwork Scholarship in association with Monash University. Invitations to the annual Blackwell's party at the Australian Library and Information Association biennial conferences were always coveted because they were such fun. When the world became more serious and money was harder to earn, the other companies and Blackwell's joined forces to put on receptions which never really had the 'buzz' of the original, despite still being popular and a key feature in the calendar of events at each conference.

No tribute to Miles Blackwell would be adequate without reference to Briony, his wife who pre-deceased him by only a few weeks. Known to many of us as his ideal companion, schooled in the genteel arts yet utterly worldly, Briony shared with Miles a generosity of spirit and an intense interest in the worlds she encountered. I escorted her to Kakadu in the 1980s and recall well her delight in the 'otherness' of that landscape. In turn, Briony escorted me on an insider's tour of Oxford several years later, taking me also to visit Miles' marvellous mother Marguerite Blackwell, who, in the family tradition, was volunteering as a guide at one of Britain's stately homes. As a landscape architect and then as a breeder of woolly sheep, Briony's love of the natural world was the essence of her. Yet that world was tragically denied her for months before her death because of the illness she had suffered and from which she died.

The history of libraries in Australia in the last decades of the twentieth century will certainly include an account of the way library collections were built and the role Blackwell's played in supplying them. Miles Blackwell was a core ingredient of The Firm's success and many of us are indebted to him for going well beyond the call of duty to allow us to become so much more than customers in terms of our relationship with him and, after his marriage to Briony, with them both.

Frances H Awcock
Chief executive officer and state librarian, State Library of Victoria

I think Miles Blackwell must have visited Australia every year at least once a year (often more) from the very late sixties on. He loved the country, the people and the life style. He became good friends with both the older generation of librarian and the bright and upcoming librarians who would be the stars of the future. Many remained his friends for the rest of his life. Those friendships would extend after retirement. He never dropped anyone because they no longer had a 'budget' to spend - if they were friends, they were friends.

He gained his initial understanding of librarianship by spending two months in Australia in the very early seventies, and under the tutelage of Dietrich Borchardt learned how libraries think and work and what their real needs are (as opposed to their stated needs). Throughout his life he was an ambassador for the customer in Blackwell's thinking and decision-making, and much of that came from what he had garnered in Australia. He was impressed with how forward thinking and innovative Australian librarianship was - in its development of outreach services and early adoption of technology, for example. He used to take pleasure in pointing out quietly to American librarians (or anyone who thought they were on the cutting edge of library development) that what they were talking enthusiastically about experimenting with next year, someone in Australia had implemented last year. He insisted that Blackwell's get its first fax machine having seen one in Australia and been immensely impressed by it. Blackwell's had to have it because Australian libraries would want to use this technology to communicate with us. We all though he was mad, but he was right, and within a few months the technology was everywhere.

He felt very much at home in Australia - he was comfortable there. He had tested every beer in Australia and had his particular favourites - I think Cascade was the final choice. Although one's first reaction might be exactly the opposite, he was actually a totally classless individual. He would go into pubs that you or I would not venture into and within minutes strike up a conversation with the locals which was genuine and friendly and unmarked by any class barriers. He simply liked people and was interested in them and their opinions, and that shone through the accent and the dress. Those who attended a memorable Acquisitions conference in the early seventies where the first night of the conference overlapped with a conference of drovers will recall that Miles spent as much time talking to the drovers as to the librarians and (I think) beat them at darts. Thirty years later he was still exchanging Christmas cards with the publican from that bar. It was in pubs that he used to pick up sayings of folk wisdom which he would adopt. It was in Tasmania that he found one of his favourites: 'Experts. Graveyards are full of experts'. He used to use that a lot when consultants arrived on the scene.

He loved the Australian language and its creativity. Oxford had to get used to stubbies and tinnies. He was an excellent mimic and prided himself on being able to identify regional Australian accents. But he was terribly English and always remained so. Even in Darwin he used to wear his grey suit and tie (although it is rumoured that one evening he took his jacket off as the heat and humidity became intolerable)

When he married Briony, he took her early to Australia to show her the country he so much enjoyed, and she responded as warmly as he did. After his father died - and he was very close to his father and the dying had been prolonged - he solaced himself partly with travel. And it was in Australia that he chose to spend a lot of that time because of his love for the country and because he felt so much at ease there.

He was an intensely private and, indeed, a very shy man. Inheritance and duty placed him in a position which required him to play a public role - and that he did well - but in truth he probably would have been happier as an academic. Those who sat up late into the night listening to him talk about one of his enthusiasms (whether it was naval history, the American civil war, or in later years rare breeds of sheep or church architecture) would not just marvel at his amazing memory but reflect on what had been lost to academe.

Chris Tyzack
Chris Tyzack recently retired after 30 years with Blackwells.