He joined Francis Edwards Ltd, a bookdealer in London's Marylebone High Street on leaving school in 1969.
Joining the travel department he spent his first month in the bookshop dusting the shelves in order to become acquainted with the stock.
In the summer of 1976 he met his wife, Sophie Dupré, the manuscript specialist, and in 1979 he became a partner in Francis Edwards in London where he took responsibility for a new book investment scheme.
He and his family had moved to their home in Calne in Wiltshire in 1980 where Sophie had already set up her autograph and manuscript business.
In 2003, when the Antiques Roadshow visited Dumfries in Scotland, Farahar identified a collection of 23 drawings and watercolours as the work of Beatrix Potter.