Random Spectacular No 1

One of the greatest pleasures I experienced this Christmas Day was to turn the pages of this utterly delicious periodical (I hope) and to savour its many and varied delights. I cannot remember quite where Frances saw it mentioned but one glance showed that we should have a copy.

Having enjoyed it SO much, myself, I hasten to photograph and post a few pages with the sole hope that others will be as enchanted as we have been and will buy it . . . if there are any copies left! I have done this with no thought to copyright infringement or the like but hope that those concerned will take this eager promotion in the spirit in which I have brought it about.

As it is printed in vibrantly coloured lithography, this poor restricted letterpress printer is able to re-enact the old 'child in a sweetshop' routine and wish, even more than usual, for a second life - in which to concentrate on printing by classic lithography.

If you do not know about this publication already, you will be wanting the details. I could repeat them here but a click will take you to details of the editors and St. Jude's Gallery, in Norwich, who are responsible for the lovely gallimaufry and where all the facts can be obtained.

Meanwhile, I will simply continue to delight you with a few pages!


Part of Mike Hearld's Menagerie:




From Jake Tilson's Fonts and Fishcans:



Images by Angie Lewin:




From an article on the agrarian culture of East Anglia. Photograph by Justin Partyka:




From Tuscan Town Scenes: images by Emily Sutton. Delicious overtones of Eric Ravilious's Highstreet.




From In search of Fonthill: by Simon Martin with images by Ed Kluz

misty morning

Thwarting our resolve to get to Tesco really early this morning,
one glance out of the window showed that
it was essential that I should take the camera for a little walk.

I have to say that I am rather happy with some of these
so I have no hesitation in offering a few
as a little Christmas Gift,
to all our online friends,
from the two of us at

Catchmays Court!

A new edition of a much loved book

The second of the books with texts by George Mackay Brown that we published, emerged in 1991, to coincide with George's 7oth birthday, was In the Margins of a Shakespeare. The book was very well received and some time ago joined our first venture with GMB (Keepers of the House) into the dark world of out-of-print-ness.

For anyone who may have been searching the online shelves of ABE or the like, I have good news. A new edition of In the Margins of a Shakespeare has just been published. There is, for many, just one catch . . . it is in Japanese!






After happy email exchanges between Tokyo and Llandogo on various matters over a number of months we received, just yesterday, a couple of early copies of this deliciously neat and elegant edition which I, for one, am more than proud to be, as it were, the grandfather of.






I cannot begin to imagine the editorial complications involved in paging the two versions but the fact that Llewellyn Thomas's image for the piece on The Tempest ends up on a different page from the original indicates that there was nothing as simple as a page for page substitution.





The image at the head of this piece is of our cover and the same arrangement of printers' flowers can be seen on the cover (and elegant wrapper) of the Japanese version.

I omitted to say above that a Japanese edition of Keepers of the House appeared some years ago from the same publisher, Alba Shobo. We have not yet mentioned any possibility of the same honour being afforded to the third of our George Mackay Brown collaborations . . . The Girl from the Sea . . . but that of course is happily still, at least, available in its English form!

As a postscript to this story I must add this final photograph which demonstrates, yet again, my egregious sluttishness when it comes to distribution of type. I always seemed to have some other book to move on to! Still, it is quite happy having sat there for the the past 20 years (ye gods!) so another 20 should not make any difference.