Rick Gekoski - described by Tatler as “think Bill Bryson, only on books” - is a rare book dealer, writer, and occasional broadcaster. An American who came to England in 1966 (and now a dual citizen, feeling "equally ill at ease in both cultures") he took a B. Phil and D.Phil. in English at Oxford. From 1971-1987 he was a member of the English Department of the University of Warwick, and sometime Chairman of the Faculty of Arts.

He has published a critical book on Joseph Conrad, The Bibliography of William Golding, Staying Up (a book on Premiership Football), a collection of essays entitled Tolkien's Gown and Other Stories of Great Authors and Rare Books (based on his BBC Radio 4 Series Rare Books, Rare People), and Outside of a Dog: A Bibliomemoir. A second series of Lost, Stolen, or Shredded: The History of Some Missing Works of Art was broadcast on BBC Radio 4  in September-October 2009. He has founded two private presses, The Sixth Chamber Press and The Bridgewater Press, which issue finely printed editions of leading contemporary novelists and poets. In 2005 he was one of the judges for the Man Booker Prize, and he is currently Chair of the judges for the Man Booker International Prize 2011.

He lives in London, the New Forest and New Zealand, is married to Belinda Kitchin and has two children, Anna (a forensic psychologist) and Bertie (training as an underwater videographer), who appear in both Staying Up and Outside of a Dog.