WHY is it that the libraries of writers and artists are especially interesting, asks George Ramsden owner of Stone Trough Books in Walmgate, York?

The question is prompted by George exhibiting paintings and drawings by the late Michael Davey.

“Michael’s library reflects his various interests – in art, architecture, painting, drawing, illustration, photography, book-collecting, jade, netsuke – but perhaps he was primarily a bibliophile,” he says.

Michael had studied at St Martins College Of Art in London before doing his National Service in Bavaria and later pursued a career in teaching, his professional expertise encompassing primary schoolchildren, A-level pupils, foreign students and even a Frenchman of 70.

Having trained in teaching at St Luke’s College, Exeter, Michael had settled in Devon, making the most of Ashburton’s second-hand bookshop in his 30-plus years in the south west.

He became a book collector in earnest, and on moving to York in 1998 to be near his son’s young family, his collecting continued apace.

Few people outside his family saw his library, kept behind blinds in the sunlit first-floor room of a Victorian terraced house.

“While looking at his books – he understood their decorative possibilities too and liked to introduce a splash of vellum or parchment to his shelves – you might be diverted to his oil paintings and beautifully executed line drawings, ‘from the life’, some with a grey wash,” says George.

“Michael’s pictures were all over the house because, not being interested in selling, he had hardly ever exhibited.

“In his later years in York, this tall, impressive man, who spoke with natural authority, was rather an enigma.”

Michael, who had his first bypass surgery in his 40s, had further operations at intervals and died on June 29, 2007 at the age of 72.

This retrospective exhibition has been put together with much help and information from his wife, Sarah, and will be on show until July 28.