It seems (was) aeons ago that we first dreamed of having a website but wondered who would have the knowledge and experience to work the dark arts but be sensitive enough to avoid the cheap and garish excesses that, even then, tended to make web surfing a less than relaxing activity.
As we have mentioned before, the answer came somewhat laterally when we saw a small site (later it would have been a Blog) put up by our long-standing friend Michael Hutchins as a means of sending news and images to friends and family back home while he was in Australia. We were amazed and delighted by the simplicity and understated elegance of these pages but hardly surprised given the fact that Michael had been a letterpress man for ever and the screens had been designed in the same way as pages from his beautiful
Chimaera Press books.
Thus it was that we became fortunate enough to have Michael design our site, its basic structure and its content. First one or two photographs were posted on pages about our books but, as the wizardry advanced, we put up more sophisticated 'movies' which enable people to study a decent sample of one or all of our books. The next best thing to handling them.
Over the years, people have gone out of their way to compliment us on our website and to say that it was easy to navigate, helpful and friendly. Over the years, it has also to be said, the number of new 'friends' that have come to us via the internet, from whatever starting point and by whatever route, has greatly outnumbered those who have arrived in more traditional ways.
The last few years have, sadly, been cruel to Michael and his family in various ways and we agreed recently that he did not any longer need the added burden of looking after the OSP site.
SO, we set off to find a new webmaster who would invest the site with some fresh mechanisms and enhanced staging devices but would retain, most importantly of all, the simplicity that people have so liked.
Enter
Sally Wakelin . . . or, rather, Sally came on the scene some time ago and has been working away sharing modified pages with us in a way that no one else can see!
At the start of this, albeit faltering, Spring, the cover is whisked off and you can explore the new-look 'early' pages, menus and so on. Although the design has been agreed for the 'Book Pages' (see EQUUS), the rest of these pages have yet to be modified. This will take place as quickly as possible. Sally and we very much hope that you will not be troubled with broken links or other teething troubles but please tell us if you come across any or if you have any suggestions or criticisms.
We are
so very much indebted to Michael for all that he has done . . . and already very grateful to Sally for pitching in with such vigour and imagination.
