Driffield started as a booksearcher, obtaining titles to order for private customers, and in 1984 began producing a self-published guide to All The Secondhand and Antiquarian Bookshops in Britain[2] (also titled In Quest of the Perfect Book : The Antiquarian Bookshop Catalogue & Directory).
[3] Hugely successful for its wit and wide coverage of the field, the guide was nonetheless idiosyncratic and often sarcastic,[4] with entries such as: "the b[oo]ks are slowly transforming themselves back into rags"; "judging by body temp, shop seems to have expired in 1930"; "I could smell a bargain, pity was I had a cold that day"; "owner has been unwell recently with bad back (possibly caused by turning on the customers once too often)".
His Guide introduced a number of widely-quoted acronyms, including "ETGOW (easy to get on with), "NSOC (not strong on condition)", "FARTS (follows around recommending the stock)" and "WYLAH (watches you like a hawk)".
Driffield also launched a periodical called Driffs: The Antiquarian & Second Hand Book Fortnightly, although the magazine was rarely published as frequently as that and folded after 22 issues.
He appeared in the 1992 documentary The Cardinal And The Corpse, made by Chris Petit for Channel 4 and also featuring Alan Moore and Iain Sinclair.