Fred Bason (1907-1973) was an English bookseller, writer and broadcaster most famously known for his collection of diaries that were published in four volumes in the early 1950s.
[1] At an early age he started keeping his diaries and found his vocation in buying and selling rare, second hand books.
It was through his experience, in finding that publications had a much greater re-sale value with the author's signature, that a lifelong obsession with autographs began.
[2] His essays were a regular feature of every edition of The Saturday Book between 1945 and 1972,[3] presenting his work on the same platform as major literary and artistic figures of postwar Britain.
Through his literary interest he met numerous famous individuals, and had one of his published diaries introduced by Noël Coward.