My destination was Hay-on-Wye, the Welsh border town famous for having the world’s highest concentration of antiquarian bookstores. Charles Traylen, the last of the great antiquarian booksellers. Born in Cambridge in 1905, Charles Traylen left school at 14 and, after a stint repairing bicycles, found work with Galloway & Porter, a local rare-book firm. But as the clouds of war began to gather, Traylen knew it was time to move on. Charles Traylen had arrived.