The Old Stile Press :: News & Work in Progress

Snowdrops for Bangkok

2012-01-28T17:42:00.006Z

Ralph Kiggell, the maker of magical woodcut prints in the Japanese style, lives in Bangkok and I am prepared to believe that Snowdrops are in rather short supply in Thailand. In a recent email, he asked whether ours had made an appearance yet. Detecting a note of '(original)home sickness', perhaps, I took a few photographs.

Above is the rather obvious 'woodland covering' picture but here is one I rather like . . . especially as Ralph quite often, in his prints, makes a feature of long shadows!

Here, for instance, is one long shadow on the title page of his exquisite book, Leading the Cranes Home. This is one of the most popular of our recent books and, I confess, I do have my favourites!

For many months now, emails have been flying between Thailand and Wales as plans for the 'sequel' (ie same format) developed. It was decided, when we last met, that the theme for the new book would be "Water" and Ralph has now (I think) completed his selection of poems and prose extracts and, a few days ago, an email arrived containing photographs of an exciting first harvest of newly cut blocks.

A book which is to contain such an exquisite woodblock print as this, needs watching, I feel.

Watch this space!

Exhibition at the Science Museum, London

2012-01-19T17:23:00.004Z

We are coming up once more for a Fair in London - this one is at the Science Museum and it gives us an opportunity to see the amazing makeover of Exhibition Road that is now complete.

In previous years we have had to struggle between roadworks and giant hoardings and general building chaos but now it all appears to be finished so even the approach to this Exhibition which displays Watercolours and Drawings and Works on Paper will be an excitement before rising up above the scientific exhibits in a glass and steel lift to Level 2. Here there is a magnificent display by numerous galleries who specialise in watercolours, drawings, original prints, photographs and then there is a group of those of us who produce artists books . . . how can you resist a trip out?

Click here for details of the new Exhibition Road project.

There are details on the website of opening times, how to get there, who all the exhibitors are and news of the live music, café, champagne bar and all that goes to make a show with a considerable buzz. We can provide tickets for anyone who is interested in visiting if you email or telephone us. As always, it is a splendid opportunity to see and handle the books which otherwise you can only see on our website. However much information we put up there, nothing can compare with turning real pages of beautiful papers still fresh with the smell of inks as text and image flow before you. You don’t get original prints whether they be woodcuts, or engravings from copper plates on a Kindle or even in most books.

We especially look forward to showing you our new titles - one by Natalie d’Arbeloff whose lively drawings leap from the pages of Stories from the Life of Jesus and our amazing versions of Powys Mather’s Procreant Hymn which include the copper engravings Eric Gill made for The Golden Cockerel Press and a second set which were previously unpublished with the text. All the engravings are freshly printed directly from Gill’s plates.

I’ll hope to see you there.

Found Poem

2012-01-07T17:59:00.008Z

I have recently started to use an app whereby I dictate into one of those dinky little microphones and the pearls of great price appear immediately on the screen of my Mac. It is pretty miraculous, to put it mildly, and infinitely better than the similar package I tried years ago with wildly feeble results - it might as well have been translating what I was saying into some long-dead language.

Anyway . . . this morning I was using the thing to help me with a long and complicated e-mail . . . and it was doing a great job. Suddenly Frances came in to discuss a topic of great moment, namely what were we going to have for lunch. She was talking from the other end of the room and I was talking to her over my shoulder. After she had gone I looked down at my e-mail and realized that I had not turned my microphone off and that the machine had been trying to listen to what F and I had been talking about and had done as best it could in the matter of writing it down. When I had recovered from my surprise at seeing a mass of words in the middle of my e-mail I began to read them. It was nothing less than a "stream of un-consciouness" and was clearly of significant literary merit(!!!) .

On two previous occasions with OSP books I have used a technique involving the cutting up, into units of sense, texts which are hard to understand. Firstly there was The Paradise Driver my strange writing under morphine (provided by a hospital!) and the other the arcane and antique writings (about the faery world) by Mr Robert Kirk, The Secret Commonwealth.

It occurred to me that this technique might enhance my strange Found Poem and so, I think, it does. So, I attach it here . . . just for fun.

Found Poem

time right then
who is the person who killed my disabled
could
is at one point per headsets below
soup over and in both codes like some Indians
listening to the nice friendly supreme
just slightly home
solid granola sound like a well either we have and we haven't
had a pizza
phrases are not sure likely to help
and we have a Jimmy while at home as a freezer
Lasalle Alfredo am half an hour Friday
and with some stuff on it
but maybe in relative adventures there
but maybe not amateurs
that sort of ads and
clearly in a tall and Dion mine afterwards
but urgent project it is sold
in the actor puts
and pepper into it but no no harm
no social life
feeling very well the meet his pre-salted will
I think that with the number of we handle Alfredo
we make it in crooked than cut in half
and you have one of my last letter.

Random Spectacular No 1

2011-12-31T15:26:00.005Z

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

2011-12-22T15:16:00.004Z

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

2011-12-07T15:48:00.003Z

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.

Gemma's Mural . . .

2011-11-27T15:54:00.007Z

. . . in our kitchen!

I simply cannot imagine why I have not, before now, given myself the fun of introducing this remarkable work to you out there. The mural has sat on one and a bit of the walls of our rather cramped kitchen (including the doors of cupboards and even on the wall at the back of a glass fronted cupboard) for more than ten years and has given a wonderful feeling of warmth and airyness and soft breezes carrying the the scent of thyme and oregano . . . to us and to all those who visit.

Way back then we had met Gemma who lived a mile or two downstream from here but was, at that time, spending most of her time at art-college. She painted, she sculpted, she made pots and at every point there was splendid evidence of a meticulous approach to the portrayal of the natural world - especially plants.

When her College course had ended, it seemed the right moment to mention our idea of a commission to transport some of our kitchen walls to a sunnier clime! "Good idea" said Gemma, "Where would you like it to be? I have never been to Greece". "That does not matter" said we, "Here are some photographs of Crete to start you off and the rest can come from your imagination!"

It was lovely to see the great work develop and thrilling to see it finished. While Frances is cooking away of an evening, I am often to be found propping up one of the doorposts and staring out to sea past one of the headlands standing steeply up from the warm, surfy sand.

In the intervening years we have seen Gemma around a bit but have not been able to spend much time with her.

Last evening, however, we had a lovely meal with friends a bit further up the river and they asked whether we had seen what Gemma has been up recently and had we seen her blog.

It has been the greatest fun, as I said earlier, to reminisce about the genesis of Gemma's mural but what really made me want to break what seems to have been a truly Trappist degree of silence from my Blog is my enjoyment of Gemma's internet presence and my strong desire to share with as many as possible the images that she has already made public there and those which I feel sure will follow during subsequent months and years.

I hope that you will be intrigued enough to want to follow up this link. You will be rewarded by a photograph of a sculptural event involving wood and fire and water and of ice sculpture that is slowly built up rather than the more usual carving down.

It's that time of year . . .

2011-09-15T17:33:00.002+01:00

I can't resist posting this photograph which I rather like. Click it bigger and then stare at it for a bit.

I think, though, that it might need to come with a health warning for folk who are adversely affected by such things as driving past a line of trees through which the sun is shining. I do not want to cause fits or fainting with all these spots. Pass the smelling salts!

a look at our 'bindings'

2011-09-09T15:01:00.005+01:00

This week, following a Bookbinding Conference at Warwick University, several of the participants came to visit us here, including some binders from overseas. We are always delighted to meet such people. We all spend our lives absorbed in books but we think about them in somewhat different ways! We had some lively and interesting conversations over lunch outside in glorious sunshine and they continued as the binders looked at a display of books we have printed. (For some of these, unbound copies are still available. Any bookbinders who are interested in doing their own bindings on one of our books, please ask for a list of those we still have available in unbound form.)

However, it did set us thinking about some of the books where our own bindings have been (we think!) particularly successful and involved especially interesting materials or designs evolved together with the artists working within the book.

Here, as a reminder of some of these, are photographs which concentrate on the exteriors of certain books. There are, of course, further details on our website and copies are available of each of them.

The Dream Song of Olaf Åsteson was bound by Habib Dingle in wood. He had described to us how much he wished to prove that you could do an edition of a book (not just a single copy) using wood without the costs being significantly higher than a more standard binding with a slipcase. After a considerable search for suitable wood in the quantity he needed, we discovered a reclamation yard who were about to saw century-old pine beams into floorboards - we asked them to modify their measurements so that we had boards of the right thickness which Habib could then shape, sand and polish. We think he probably went through more anguish than he revealed to us but what we have is a very handsome binding totally in keeping with this very early text from a Norwegian Christian poet. Maryclare Foa has filled the interior with intense woodcut images.

Each book has a different character determined by the grain and nature of the wood used - if specially lucky the purchaser of the book may get a few nail holes which adds to the character. A groove at top and bottom has leather inserted to protect surfaces of book and shelf, and the spine is of natural leather embossed with imagery drawn by the artist.

Apart from this binding by Habib Dingle, all the other books photographed here were bound by The Fine Bindery or, as it has now become, The Fine Bookbindery. Maurice and Kevin and their team, which has stayed together through various vicissitudes, have collaborated with us in producing designs in keeping with the artist’s intentions for each book.

Pyramus and Thisbe has a strong half leather binding to remind us of the slightly clumsy workmen whom Shakespeare has caused to come together to present a play for Midsummer and become part of the Dream. The boards represent a stone wall with chinks through which Pyramus on the front and Thisbe on the back, peer at one another so that, right from the first, Christopher Nurse’s chiaroscuro prints set the scene for what is to come.

Secret Commonwealth deals with the parallel universe of creatures which Robert Kirk describes following his research into the beliefs held by his seventeenth century contemporaries in Scotland. Second sight and faery, good and evil, fertility and the Subterraneans above and below the earth are considered. This is all suggested by the earth-coloured Harmatan leather which covers almost two thirds of the book abutting the printed images of those Subterraneans running below and among the roots of trees - all beautifully executed.

Letters & Heads is a marriage of text and image though poet and artist did not know one another in spite of the fact that they were both born in Greenock, on the Clyde outside Glasgow. W.S. Graham wrote, in St Ives, Cornwall, these poems expressing the difficulty of humans really to communicate and engage with one another. Douglas Thomson paints and makes woodcut prints of heads equally disengaged and struggling to make contact with others.

We, as printer/publishers, put the two together in this book and for its slipcase Nicolas painted papers emulating the wild seas and blue skies of St Ives in a pastiche of the paintings of Peter Lanyon and others at that time.

We have created several large, almost square books with different artists who relished having a big area for their images to sweep across. One of these is Angela Lemaire’s Pyed Pyper which uses the earliest known version in English of the tale of the Piper from Hamelin. It is not the verses of Robert Browning.

To emphasise the antiquity of this text we decided upon full bookcalf leather with rules and devices blind tooled with considerable heat so that they are almost burned into the leather. The Pyed Pyper himself is at the centre.

Not all the remarkable bindings we are highlighting here use leather - two especially involve cloth printed with designs by the artist involved. In the case of The Revelation of St John the Divine, together with Natalie d’Arbeloff we decided upon an outside case which has a board opening in each direction. This is covered on the upper surface with a large piece of black cloth - as large as the press would take and requiring two of us to feed it into the rollers - which was printed in white to give the impression of carvings in stone. The outer boards open to reveal a face resembling that on the Turin shroud, printed in black ink on linen. The inside of the boards has paper printed with swirling wheels and deep red ‘margins’.

The book itself is a concertina fold so that the deeply impressed imagery is only printed on one side of the Arches paper. The pages are joined with linen strips on the outer edges. This book was exhibited together with the earliest known copy of Revelation and numerous others printed over the ages which now reside in the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin - some company to keep!

The second binding involving cloth printed on our press, with a design by the artist who created the book’s images, is Martin Pitts’ The Waternymph and the Boy. The cloth is a soft blue linen printed with watery swirls and poolside plants in honey coloured ink on a cover that is flexible and tied with gold grosgrain ribbons. The poem within is a Victorian version by Roden Noel of Ovid’s Salmacis and Hermaphroditus.

London Art Book Fair

2011-09-09T10:12:00.005+01:00

THE LONDON ART BOOK FAIR 
THE DIRECTOR AND TRUSTEES OF  THE WHITECHAPEL GALLERY
INVITE YOU TO A SPECIAL  PREVIEW OF THE LONDON ART BOOK FAIR  
PREVIEW
 THURSDAY 22 SEPTEMBER 2011, 6–9PM  
FAIR
 FRIDAY 23 UNTIL SUNDAY 25 SEPTEMBER 2011
 11AM–6PM
ADMISSION FREE  
RSVP BY 19 SEPTEMBER 2011
 E: BOOKFAIRPREVIEW@WHITECHAPELGALLERY.ORG
 T: +44 (0)20 7539 3316

Another year, another trip to
The Whitechapel Gallery!
Do visit us . . . upstairs this time.

Mother Nature's paint box

2011-08-24T10:27:00.006+01:00

To celebrate our 48th wedding anniversary I have been snapping round the garden again! This time I was particularly amazed at the depth and richness of the colours on offer this year. Perhaps they are just the same as usual but . . .

Frances, ever perceptive, announced that the above seemed to be a photograph of a small gathering of headless nuns!

a very kind review . . .

2011-08-19T11:41:00.003+01:00

This week we received a copy of the summer edition of the magazine produced for The Imaginative Book Illustration Society (IBIS) which contains the review below of our recently published bibliography. We have known Geoffrey Beare for many years as a passionate authority on the work of William Heath Robinson - indeed he curated the major exhibition at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in 2003. He lectures in the Rare Books School in the University of London and is the Chairman of IBIS (www.bookillustration.org). Hence we read his review with considerable delight and feel that followers of our blog might enjoy it too. We reprint it here with the generous permission of its author.

The Old Stile Press ... the next ten years, a Bibliography 2000-2010 by Nancy Campbell, Frances McDowall and Nicolas McDowall. Llandogo, Monmouthshire: The Old Stile Press, 2011. Laminated soft covers, 136pp. 288 x 204mm. 195 coloured illustrations. Limited to 1000 copies. ISBN 978-0-907664-85-7. £45 (plus £4 p&p in UK). There are also 15 Special copies, with pages or spreads from almost all the books together with many other items, at £850.

One can have nothing but admiration for that small band of individuals who dedicate their lives to the production by traditional means of fine books in small editions. When such makers of books sustain their endeavour over decades, showing unfailing judgement in their choice of texts and work with some of the most imaginative illustrators, then it is doubly a cause for celebration.

Nicolas McDowall started the Old Stile Press in 1979 and has been producing fine books ever since, 78 titles so far and still going strong. He is unusual in the private press world in finding his inspiration not in a need to produce particular texts, nor in a love of setting and printing from moveable type, but in a love of illustrations and their relationship to text. The first 20 years of the press were celebrated in The Old Stile Press . . . in the twentieth century a bibliography 1979 -1999 published in 2000. The present volume carries the story up to the present.

The book has an introductory essay by Nancy Campbell, which is full of insight, and a short essay by Frances McDowall on 'New Skills Promoting Old Crafts'. The bulk of the book is taken up with illustrations and descriptions of the books that the press has produced since 2000. Four pages are devoted to each title and the glorious images are complemented by an account of how each book came into being. These stories are fascinating. Publication of The Last Poems of Alice Meynell came about when Nicolas received through the post a catalogue from an antiquarian book dealer who had not sent him catalogues before. He was excited to see a copy of the first edition of Meynell's book which contained 35 drawings by the late Robin Tanner done in black ink directly on the paper of the book. The Old Stile Press edition was published with these drawings in 2004 to mark Robin Tanner's centenary. Another happy chance was the discovery, when visiting their friend, the artist Bert Isaac, of a portfolio of coloured drawings that he had made in the 1940s and 1950s to illustrate or decorate a range of titles, not as commissions, but just for his own pleasure. These drawings are in a range of styles that reveal influences including Edward Bawden, John Minton and English surrealism, but are always exuberantly original. They include a cover design for an imaginary eighth title in the 'New Excursions into English Poetry' series, Poems of Nature.

During the past decade the press has published two texts of major significance, Benjamin Britten's libretto for A Christmas Sequence and George Mackay Brown's play The Girl from the Sea. Neither work had been previously staged or published. Established illustrators who worked with the press over the last ten years include regular collaborators Natalie d'Arbeloff, Angela Lemaire, Clive Hicks-Jenkins and the late J. Martin Pitts. Peter Reddick illustrated two books with the press, one with his wood engravings and the other with gentle line drawings, a new departure for him.

The half-title of The Abstract Garden published in 2006 reads The Word, / The Image / and the space between and this sums up the ethos of The Old Stile Press. The book was a collaboration between the poet Philip Gross, the illustrator Peter Reddick and the printer Nicolas McDowall. Sometimes the poem came first with the wood engraving following and sometimes it was the image that provided the inspiration for the poem. In either case, it was the printer who provided 'the white space that would separate and hold together the poems and images'.

The volume ends with a note by Nicolas McDowall on the future of the press. An exciting development is the acquisition of the Press's archives by the Lilly Library at the University of Indiana, with an option to take future material. About 20 more books are at various stages of preparation, only one of which is specified, a sequel to Leading the Cranes Home, a selection of Chinese poems with illustrations by Ralph Kiggell. However, one further title has recently been announced, a new edition of Procreant Hymn by E Powys Mathers with copper engravings by Eric Gill. This was originally published by the Golden Cockerel Press in 1926 with five plates by Gill. A loosely inserted notice stated that three alternative designs could be obtained from the artist. There were in fact four alternative plates, showing the figures 'in a state of realism that would have been unexpected ... at that time'. The new edition comprises two volumes, the first replicating the original edition and the second substituting the alternative plates. The illustrations have been printed from the original copper plates and the two volumes are presented in a lined slipcase.

Further details of the Old Stile Press publications can be obtained from the press at Catchmays Court, Llandogo, Monmouthshire, NP25 4TN or from their excellent website at http://www.oldstilepress.com/

Geoffrey Beare

. . . and whose garden is it anyway?

2011-07-16T23:05:00.002+01:00

Monks, deadly attired, in the shadow of the Cathedral . . .

2011-06-05T12:18:00.004+01:00

We have just returned from three days (extremely cleverly chosen!) in the Pembrokeshire sun. This was remarkably restorative . . . but not what I am talking about today.

A few days before we left, we had reason to drive over to Hereford which is a city we are finding we like more and more as we discover more of the bits which do not give the feel of a ten-lane motorway!

Our business concluded, we paid a visit to a fantastic little chinese restaurant for a delicious lunch that my taste buds have been yearning for since our last visit . . . and then had a bit of a wander round.

A street market housed many stalls selling plants but our attention was captivated by one selling entirely wild flowers. Apparently the people concerned have obtained permission from all the correct conservation agencies to visit beautiful places around for the purpose of harvesting seed. The results were extremely beautiful and we could have bought the whole place!

We did come away with a number of beautiful plants which we hope will join the rest of the wild flowers that come up undemanded and without any help from us in our uncontrolled domain.

I became fascinated by one plant and took it home - despite protestations from Frances about the wisdom of importing a plant well-known for being deadly poisonous!

Here, therefore, are a couple of photos of my lovely Monkshood or Wolfsbane. What deliciously gothic names those are . . . only improved upon by the sight of the plant itself. The hoods on the plants look like a group of wickedly conspiring clerics on an operatic stage while the leaves are clearly demanding of mediaeval masons to be immortalized on decorated capitals throughout the Cathedral.

Oh, I know, its just a weed . . .

If anybody out there still remembers me . . . Hi!

2011-05-28T18:01:00.009+01:00

I have been silent for about a month and that must be, I fear, a mortal sin in these days of instant and total communication! I don't tweet (should I say that I am not a twit?) and I keep ignoring folk who want me to join their Facebook (whatever that entails) and I certainly don't want any forum for myself which would demonstrate me to the giggling world as "Nicolas No-friends"!

When I started this blog, however, I did believe in it . . . and I still do. I enjoy posting something and I enjoy the occasional comment (how often do I comment when I visit friends' sites) but sometimes I just don't feel like it. It may be because I am really busy with one thing and another and sometimes I cannot think of anything interesting to say or, if I can, I fear I just cannot summon the effort to put it down in the little box. This blog will never be daily instalments of the History of Civilization as we know it and I can only hope that followers do continue to click the button every so often - even when the chance of there being anything new to see becomes vanishingly small!

I DO like taking photographs, however.

As there is, this evening, either too much to say or too little (if you understand), I decided that I would rush round the house and outside with my camera for a short time before the sun went behind the hill. I quickly took what I felt inclined to take and here are a few of them . . .

. . . just to say Hi!

A new collaboration with Natalie d'Arbeloff

2011-04-21T12:26:00.008+01:00

Way back in 1999, we had the great pleasure of helping towards publication Natalie's amazing vision of The Revelation of Saint John the Divine. Many people thought it one of the most radical pieces of book production they had ever seen and it was widely exhibited in Libraries and Museums, especially during the year of the Millennium.

We have just published another unique book consisting of images by Nd'A and I cannot resist posting some of these here.

The more than amazing fact about these images is that they were done, in the 1950s, when Natalie was an art student in New York. They were filed away and only re-surfaced last year. The artist proceeded to post some on her wonderfully idiosyncratic blog, of which we are ardent followers. (See Link right)

The moment I saw these drawings, I felt that I would love to try to make a book of them. That book is now completed and I am happy with it . . . and so, I am relieved to say, is Natalie who came to stay with us a couple of days ago to sign the copies - see photographs above and below.

The book is of simple layout. For each of the drawings there are two full page spreads, giving an appropriate title, a Bible quotation and a 'comment' by the artist.

I have chosen this one of The Last Supper to enlarge here so the extraordinary strength of the ink line can be seen. This is one of my favourites (as is the one above showing Jesus talking to Pilate) but they are all marvellous).

We have a pdf about the book which we have just sent out as an email. Please ask if you have not received one. Full details will be on our website . . . as soon as I can get to it! In case of interest, however, the price of the book is £95 plus p&p.

Happily it was lovely weather when Natalie arrived so we tried to make the signing not take too long! This final photograph mixes elements of signing and nice weather outside . . . taken through the window!

Procreant Hymn bound

2011-04-05T17:53:00.002+01:00

This, our latest venture, is described below.
Just to say that the binding of the first tranche of copies is now completed,
as this photograph from our friends at The Fine Book Bindery shows.
The next task is to collect the copies
and then Frances can begin to fulfil the happily substantial number of orders
already received from libraries and collectors.

I can however assure anyone who may be tempted/wavering
that there are still copies to be had . . .

. . . for now!

Eric Gill: Procreant Hymn

2011-03-31T17:23:00.004+01:00

This is a time which we always enjoy (and usually feel we rather deserve!) . . . when a book has been completed and photographed and some promotion has been designed and despatched.

In the old days this involved a physically-printed card or leaflet and it was the postman who brought replies, the whole process taking quite a time. In the computer age, however, things are very different. Once I have completed a leaflet with photographs and the necessary facts, Frances will do her wizardry with her address list and the thing will whizz off in all directions. Results are almost immediate but seldom very productive at that early stage . . . involving such automatic information as the fact that suchandsuch librarian halfway round the world is on holiday for two weeks! One has to wait a bit longer for the joyful bit, the "that looks really good, yes please I would like to order a copy" sort of reply.

Happily there has already been a goodly number of such reactions so we are relaxing a bit when thinking about our considerable investment this time and feeling that all the labours were justified.

So, what is this project about which I have said so little here or elsewhere?

ERIC GILL
the complete copper engravings for
Procreant Hymn by E. Powys Mathers

This is our Preface to the two books:

When, in 1926, Procreant Hymn, by E. Powys Mathers (1892-1939), was published by Robert Gibbings at The Golden Cockerel Press, there were printed 175 numbered copies for sale with a further 25 copies for presentation. There was also a notice, loosely inserted at the end of the book, which stated ‘Subscribers may be interested to know that three alternative designs have been engraved for this book and may be obtained separately from the artist’.
In the publication there are five images, all copper engravings by Eric Gill. These are known to be titled God Sending, Earth Waiting, Earth Inviting, Dalliance and Earth Receiving – although the titles are not printed in the book. As advertised in the notice, Gill made alternative plates, although there were actually four of these rather than three. They basically follow the composition of the published versions but the male and female figures, already naked in the published versions, are presented in a state of realism which would clearly have been unexpected (and, in many quarters, unacceptable) at that time.
We at The Old Stile Press have been entrusted with all the copper plates that Eric Gill engraved for this book and we have decided that the most interesting form in which we can make them available to book collectors, is to provide two complete copies of the book – one following the model of the Golden Cockerel book (now hard to track down and expensive) with the other breaking completely new ground by substituting the alternative plates to produce a book that has never been seen before.
Our books follow the pagination of the Golden Cockerel book but uses a much larger page and, importantly we think, are set in Aries, a beautiful and little-known typeface designed by Eric Gill himself.

This Old Stile Press edition of Procreant Hymn was prepared and
printed during the winter months of 2010. Nicolas McDowall
designed the publication, set and printed the type, at
Catchmays Court, Llandogo, Monmouthshire NP25 4TN, UK. The
intaglio printing, directly from Eric Gill’s copper plates, was
by Martyn Grimmer, Masterprinter at Spike Print in Bristol.
The paper is 200gsm Vélin Arches Blanc and the type is Aries.
The binding was by The Fine Book Bindery and incorporates
patterned papers designed and printed by Nicolas McDowall.
The Edition (which consists of separate copies of the book
in its two distinct forms, housed together in a lined slipcase)
is restricted to:
60 numbered copies for sale
together with 15 copies hors commerce.
For orders received before May 31st 2011,
the price of the complete item will be £850 plus p&p.
Thereafter it will be £950 plus p&p.

Below are the bindings of the two books - with printed papers designed and printed here

and here is how the books sit within their slipcase.

If anyone wishes to hear more, please email.

Centenary

2011-02-21T15:27:00.011Z

This is one of my favourite photographs and I really want to post it here
this morning, February 22nd, 2011.

It is of my mother who was born in 1911,
one hundred years ago today.

Sadly she did not hang in for her telegram from the Queen
but the photograph helps me to remember/imagine her doing
what she most enjoyed doing in those early days before WW2,
sailing in the Solent with her new husband.

Actually, I might myself have been around, in one form or another,
when these photographs were taken . . . or very soon after!

We are ready for our close-up, Mr Grigor!

2011-02-16T17:53:00.008Z

New readers may not know that Frances and I are both graduates of St Andrews University (in the distant past) and were friends then . . . although we only 'got together' at a later date! Another friend of both of us back then, and subsequently, was Murray Grigor who was making films as a student but who has honed an increasingly starry name for himself as a maker of seriously beautiful (and beautifully serious) documentary films as well as designing art exhibitions and running film festivals.

What you also need to know is that St Andrews University is coming up to its 600th anniversary. Yes, that is correct . . . it is older than any foundation in the UK with the exception of a college or so at Oxford and Cambridge. No doubt there will be any number of jamborees of all sorts to celebrate the event but, just for now, Murray Grigor has been commissioned to make a major documentary about the history of the place and the people who are alumni.

Living folk can be interviewed in various ways but dead ones cannot. The really good plan that Murray has come up with is that extant graduates should not only talk a bit about themselves but also about an earlier graduate no longer with us.

One of Frances' gifts to me in the early days lay in sharing with me the work of Gavin Douglas - whose translation of Vergil's Aeneid was completed in 1513 and first published in 1553. [The book had to be printed in London, incidentally, because the arts of printing had not quite reached Scotland.] His translation was hugely enhanced by the Prologues he wrote to each of the Books which often give delicious descriptions of Nature and country living of the day. This feeds so clearly into the subjects that we find valuable in our lives and in our work that Frances suggested to Murray that Douglas should be 'our chap'.

We had been told some time ago to expect a lightning visitation and it was on Monday evening that Murray (and the other part of this brilliant but lean team, his Director of Photography, Hamid Shams) arrived here having photographed wild boars that day (don't ask me why, it is a long story!) and Alex Salmond, Scotland's First Minister, the day before. They stayed a couple of nights and we had great fun. The 'spaghetti' enveloping Hamid's camera will tell its own story! They then rushed off to the next in a long line of St Andreans and will, very soon, be interviewing a pair of rather high profile graduates whom I am not at the moment allowed to mention!

. . . oh yes. I almost forgot to mention. There is to be a narrator throughout the show. A chap called Sean Connery . . .

The fact was remembered that I had spent most of my time at University acting and directing with The Mermaid Dramatic Society. I rashly mentioned that I still had an old scrapbook . . . and that led to Hamid scanning old photos. As some of these are now on my desktop, I had better give you a laugh with me as David King in A Sleep of Prisoners and a couple as Creon in Oedipus at Colonus. The former was performed in the University Chapel (that's me in the pulpit) and the other in the ruins of the Castle. (Note to audience, bring your own blankets!)

Up the Wye with a makeshift Claude glass

2011-02-08T17:30:00.007Z

One day last summer, Frances and I went on a trip in a motor boat up the River Wye, from Chepstow to Tintern and back again. The event was designed of course to give some of the flavour of the Picturesque Trips taken by the oh-so-romantic followers of the Rev. Gilpin and painters such as Turner, Palmer, Cox and Varley.

It was great fun and interesting from many points of view. I did of course take my camera and had dreamed of stunning shots of cloud and lightning effects after John Martin and tangled masses of vegetation that I would immediately recognize as the precursors of the neo-romantic. Sadly it did not work quite like that. The weather was totally bland and I had even forgotten to bring the polarizing filter that I use so much. Restriction to the deck of a small boat forces on a photographer the role of the 'click at anything that passes' passive tourist. In search of a photograph, I will always seek to get under the subject . . . or behind it or see it through something else. This is not possible in the middle of a river. Frankly I had hoped, nay expected, to carry home a load of stunningly 'artistic' studies with which I could amaze the favoured followers of this site . . . but this was not to be.

I have revisited the file and find that the shots of the 'sights' please me no more than they did . . . but I give a number here, mostly as an introduction to what follows.

So, starting at the grandeur of Chepstow Castle (above), we progress . . .

. . . we progress until we sight Tintern Abbey

Now we come to the real point of this post. I have always been fascinated by the concept of the Claude Glass, so beloved by the artists and the just arty among the travellers up the Wye. Hard to describe, so I call upon the good offices of Wikipedia . . .

A Claude glass (or Black Mirror) is a small mirror, slightly convex in shape, with its surface tinted a dark colour. Bound up like a pocket-book or in a carrying case, black mirrors were used by artists, travellers and connoisseurs of landscape and landscape painting. Black Mirrors have the effect of abstracting the subject reflected in it from its surroundings, reducing and simplifying the colour and tonal range of scenes and scenery to give them a painterly quality.

Just before we were leaving home for this adventure I suddenly had the perhaps crazy idea of experimenting with a photographic equivalent. I grabbed my trusty small diminishing glass (invaluable in the business of designing book pages) and hoped I could back it with the black scarf I was already wearing.

I have read that the Claude glass users were ridiculed for turning their backs on the subjects the purported to admire so much as they stared into their glasses and I feared that I must look very strange holding my camera in one hand and taking a photograph OF the other!

Anyway, here are some of the results which, after the passage of time, I find more interesting as the 'straight' photographs seem more pedestrian. I leave them to have whatever effect on you they do.

Last minute entry. An exhibition for your diary

2011-01-25T15:03:00.005Z

After so many weeks struggling with snow and ice and the general process of keeping life going in the wilds of the Wye Valley, our thoughts now turn to events where our books can be seen and handled. As we have often said, books really need to make physical contact and their pages need to be turned before their full impact can be felt .

There will be a number of major opportunities during this year when we shall be showing Old Stile Press books. Each occasion attracts very different people and this we find stimulating. It is good to see the books in the midst of painting, printmaking and fine art generally; also as a modern expression of the world of fine books throughout history;and not least when we are with other people working at present in a manner similar to ours.

The first is almost upon us. We were offered a table at the Watercolour/Works on Paper Fair somewhat at the last minute. We have shown at this fair before but they moved to the Science Museum where it seemed there was no suitable space for Artists’ Books or Private Presses. However, this year they have altered the layout so that we can be included (appropriately, next to a Columbian Press) - apparently we were missed!

SO, if you are in London or can make the trip, it is usually a very good and lively show. Details are below and an invitation which allows free entry can be sent to you on request

Later in the year we expect to be Downstairs at the Olympia Exhibition Centre for the London International Antiquarian Book Fair from Thursday 9 - Saturday 11 June.

Back Room Heroine

2011-01-14T09:51:00.003Z

All too seldom does Frances (without whom . . . ) get a mention for all the quiet and endless labours she has performed so that the OSP could operate through all these decades.

Packing of parcels is a good example. I would myself admit to tearing open the packing on parcels sent to me with scant regard for whoever did the packing let alone an empathetic understanding of the labour involved.

Just at the moment we have the (happy) task of sending almost all of the Special Copies of the recently published The Old Stile Press . . . the next ten years to their destinations and Frances has been labouring long hours at the parcel-face! The little pile in the photo below looks all very neat and efficient but I hate to think how many hours it took to create.

Some of our Artists having Exhibitions during 2011

2011-01-07T10:01:00.008Z

It is always exciting to see more of the work produced by artists with whom we have created books and 2011 seems to promise several.

Opening on 11 January at Pallant House, Chichester, Garrick Palmer is having a retrospective. The gallery is well-known to those who share our love of neo-romantic painting, having a considerable permanent collection of modern British works. These are housed in a new, award-winning building for which Garrick created a photographic archive of each stage of its construction. This exhibition, however, celebrates his lifetime of wood engraving and books. Included among his many engraved books on show will be LAND and The Ballad of Reading Gaol – the books he has produced with us.

Garrick Palmer: A Life in Wood Engraving 11th January 2011 – 13th March 2011 The De'Longhi Print Room (Free Entry)

A retrospective exhibition of prints and book illustrations from across Palmer’s career, demonstrating the artist’s mastery of wood engraving and distinctive view of the English landscape.

Pallant House, http://www.pallant.org.uk
www.garrickpalmer.co.uk

January 4 - 30 2011
Harry Brockway is among the group of Six Contemporary British Wood Engravers showing at the Washington Printmakers’ Gallery at Pyramid Atlantic in Silver Springs.

http://washingtonprintmakers.com/exhibitions/2011
www.pyramidatlanticartcenter.org

Opening on 22 January between 12 and 2 at MOMA Wales, Susan Adams is showing works with the title There are receivers in the Woods. The exhibition runs 24 January - 19 March 2011.
Quoting from the catalogue for the show – ‘Now more than ever the air could be said to hold intelligence that could be life-transforming. While masts call out from the hilltops, satellite dishes reach to the sky like boney believers hungry for a crumb of celestial knowledge.’
Susan’s book with us - Duke Bluebeard’s Castle - has magnificent and disturbing images combining traditional woodcuts printed over computer generated images derived from photographs. These complement the text which is the powerful and many-layered libretto of Bartok’s opera.

MOMA Wales www.momawales.org.uk
www.susan-j-adams.co.uk

Looking a little further, into May, there will be a retrospective of Clive Hicks-Jenkins work to celebrate his 60th birthday. This opens at the National Library of Wales (the Gregynog Gallery) on 7 May and runs to the 20th August. This also coincides with the expected publication, by Lund Humphries (http://www.ashgate.com), of a book of essays on his work. Clive’s Artlog has many fascinating details of paintings from his archive which he has been describing and photographing and give an enticing lead-in to what promises to be a magnificent event that will include readings of poetry inspired by his pictures and some which have inspired him to paint. There will be full evidence (in a small gallery leading into the main space) of his collaborations with us in The Affectionate Shepheard, The Mare’s Tale, Richard Barnfield’s Sonnets and, most recently, Sir Peter Shaffer’s Equus.
His covers for the two volumes of our Bibliography are wonderfully neo-romantic to suit our own predelictions, if not the entire range of books described within the book!

http://www.hicks-jenkins.com

This talk of our new Bibliography leads, as a postscript to this post, to mention of the fact that the book caught on in a big way during the few weeks since publication and has brought forth many generous comments.

Have you got your copy yet? . . . !

Click here for further information.

The mighty River Wye . . .

2010-12-28T10:34:00.003Z

. . . is frozen,

or at least it was on Boxing Day, before the thaw set in.

I had promised myself that there would be no more snow photos but this one seems like rather an exception. Unless Global Warming(!) dictates that Polar weather comes to South Wales each year from now on, this may be a photo that our grandchildren will show their children as something rather amazing.

Exciting Christmas Visitor

2010-12-25T16:48:00.005Z

After a delicious (but not exactly early!) breakfast, we were drawn outside by bright sun and clear air. Our Christmas walk was a complete delight and the camera was kept very busy.

I will no doubt post some shots before long but, for the moment, just this one will suffice. As I was pointing my lens in another direction, Frances let a strangulated shout of "Look, over there". There was no doubt at all about it. There, on the other side of the almost frozen river, was a creature that we know to live in these watery areas (and know to be increasingly numerous) but which is still massively shy – the otter.

I did not have a telephoto lens with me and the width of the river put a limit on how close I could try to get. I took about ten shots with the zoom at the max and got a succession of photographs of not entirely convincing black blobs. It was the very first shot that proved to be the convincing one.

Here is the above shot enlarged to a point that makes for quite a nice shot and . . .

again . . . to about as far as I could go before the image began to break up.

Another sunny but cold Christmas Day years ago, when we were also enjoying our own pleasures before family arrivals on subsequent days, I saw a kingfisher for the first time here. That was a memorable moment to say the least and today will surely fix in the memory in the same way. Wonderful!

Snow . . . what snow?

2010-12-24T22:58:00.003Z

A very happy Christmas to all our friends!

Postscript to the previous post!

2010-12-23T16:07:00.004Z

After all that rather arty-farty stuff I posted yesterday, our 'tree' has now been significantly 'improved' by the visit of one part of the family . . . complete with imaginative young persons!

It may not look like a proper christmas tree, but I think it looks just fine!

2010-12-22T12:40:00.003Z

In common with a good number of folk throughout these lands I am sure, we are preparing to enjoy Christmas in the warmth (I hope!) of our own home with no one from outside who is further than trudging distance.

We are going to observe most of what one ought to observe . . . but on a somewhat smaller scale, perhaps. In this context, and spirit, we have just put up our 'tree'. Far from wanting to purchase an adolescent tree cut down in its prime, we have sought to use branches from a beautiful twisting evergreen that needed to be trimmed in order to give us a clearer run at our drive.

We have done this before, actually, and the secret for success involves having to hand a bronze sculpture by Michael Ayrton entitled The Equilibrist. This has, I think, been seen before on these pages in various guises but not before in the role of a Christmas tree stand. This time I had prepared for myself some lengths of soft wire but these were not needed, for the branch twined round the sculpture's uprights as if grown perfectly for the purpose.

There was even a sort of inevitability about this symbiotic relationship that I feel Ayrton, the great Mazemaker, might have appreciated.

Rather pleasant working conditions!

2010-12-16T15:54:00.004Z

Ralph Kiggell (whose lovely book, Leading the Cranes Home, is now down to its last few copies) flew in recently from his home in Bangkok to see his family in the UK. He came to stay with us last night so that we could have a concentrated face to face editorial session on his long-planned sequel - working title Water.

With a good log fire and a bottle or two, it was a far from arduous evening . . . and the results were good. I now have to do some detailed paste-up work while Frances must chase permissions. When Ralph returns to Thailand he will obtain his stocks of Japanese cherry wood blocks so that he can start cutting his watery designs.

If this delicious proof is anything to go by, we are all in for another real treat!

Is this the day for a sneak invasion of England?

2010-12-09T15:46:00.004Z

No sign of a thaw this morning . . . indeed a river even fuller of ice than yesterday. Not quite enough to stage the Battle on the Ice maybe but it really does look as though we could floe-hop to England!

Chilly times on the Wye

2010-12-08T15:32:00.005Z

We have had stunningly perfect picture postcard hoar frost for days now. Often one wakes up to it but it is gone by lunchtime. Not so often is it still 'complete' in the evening and ready to be further enhanced for tomorrow's dawn.

I went out with my camera yesterday because I thought I should but, to be honest, I felt the whole scene was such that I would simply be photographing cliché shots.

As I approached the river, however, excitement rose. First there was a strange and wonderful noise and then then the really unaccustomed sight of a river full of ice floes.

The noise was explained by the action of branches sticking up through the water and behaving like circular saws to sheets of wood as the sheets of ice were rushed along by the tide. The noise could be described as a gentle and slowed down version of sheets of glass being broken. Not at all unattractive but a bit spooky.

Here, therefore, are some pictures from the frozen south. I had reason to visit my excellent dentist yesterday afternoon. I mentioned these photographs and he suggested that I should photoshop a polar bear onto a suitable ice-sheet! I fear that he will have to use his imagination!

What to do when your printing press goes phut?!

2010-11-16T16:46:00.004Z

It really was a bit of a blow.

After months of not printing any major projects (while I slaved away at the final stages of the Bibliography and dealt with sundry other aspects of our life) I finally got back to the Printing Office and became really happy to be working there again when . . . SILENCE. There is nothing deader-looking than a machine that was happily working a minute ago and now is not.

The answer (as so often) was to go for a walk . . . with my camera, naturally. The fact that it was a glorious, golden day helped the decision of course. I had thought that the high winds the night before would have done for the leaf colour as they would all be on the ground underneath. True there were far fewer leaves on the trees but the glorious light seemed to make the most of the ones that remained and made them seem like jewels.

Anyway, I had great fun and I like some of the results rather a lot.

Now a couple of reflection/window shots. First of all we have Frances in her workshop making Quince Jelly and Apple Jelly.

And secondly . . . !

Latest News: I am VERY happy and relieved to be able to say that dear old Press is humming along again. Ever since we arrived in Wales, our electrical needs (and especially those of the FAG Control 900) have been answered by John Lee who lives close by, at least by the standards of the country. Something happens to the Press about once every six or seven years I would think and every time I dive for the phone in the hope that John Lee will still be there at the other end. The happy thing is that he has similar notions about that curious word 'retirement' as we do, so I have a good hope that he will be able to rush round to minister whenever the next crisis arrives!

La Bibliographie nouvelle est arrivée!

2010-11-05T15:24:00.003Z

Seldom has any pair of kids waited so eagerly for the postman as we did this morning, knowing that the first copy of what we have been working on for so long had been posted from the printer yesterday. Finally the doorbell went and we both rushed to grab the parcel and tear off its wrappers!

The all-important first glance was entirely positive for both of us. The book felt solid, sturdy and workmanlike. As we had already seen a set of printed sheets, it was of course the effect of the cover image that we had been most looking forward to. As everyone reading this is likely to know, Clive Hicks-Jenkins made a deliciously romantic black and white drawing (of our lair in the Wye Valley - seen somewhat fancifully!) for our first Bibliography, ten years ago, and he agreed to paint another picture for the second . . . this time in colour to reflect that this book also has colour throughout. We are of course thrilled with the result and we judge that the artist himself has been quietly confident that his painting would have the desired effect. Thank you Clive!

It was important for us, also, to see the two books side by side as they are meant to go neatly beside each other on a shelf. Yes the two spines were equal and the two spine letterings aligned. And, of course, the all-important sheep (see previous post) . . . there they are, all exactly placed on the spine giving their message clearly!

Here then is an upright view of the two books showing the delicious similarities (and differences) between the two designs. And then there is the whole back of the book which I have not shown you at all!

But now, to be serious for a moment. These Blog glimpses have been just that but we expect the books to be delivered on Monday and then our promotional activities will begin in earnest.

We can, however, now announce one all-important set of facts . . . namely the prices.

The new book (The Old Stile Press . . . the next ten years) is £45 (plus £4 p&p in UK).

A limited number of copies of the earlier book (The Old Stile Press . . . in the twentieth century) remains and these are £40 (plus £4 p&p in UK).

If you do not have a copy of the first book, you can have a copy of both at a special price of £75 (plus £6 p&p in UK).

There are 15 Special (or Archive) copies. These will include pages or spreads from almost all the books together with many other items. The selection is still being made and the box is still being designed but some copies have already been spoken for. The price of this Special Edition is £850.

As we still await bound copies of the second Bibliography . . .

2010-11-01T12:38:00.003Z

. . . I have been preparing a little 'present' to be slipped into the first 250 copies to be sold. Early birds who ordered copies quickly of our first Bibliography ten years ago found (and, we gather, appreciated) a jeux d'esprit involving a piece of Frances' paper, a couple of poems and some sheep!

This time they will find the above. We have been fortunate to own that wood block by Eric Gill for many years. It gets an outing on special occasions (our daughter Cressida's wedding invitation for example!) and this is a special occasion.

For those who like to tot up monetary 'value' . . . as this is printed direct from the actual block, it means that this is an 'original print' by Eric Gill and so the book itself could be seen as coming more or less free!

As soon as we receive copies (and I can photograph them), we will post final details of prices and ordering. It should not be too long now!

Excitement is mounting here . . .

2010-10-24T14:35:00.002+01:00

. . . and this is a big hint for our many friends who have been around a bit!

The fact is that, in 2000, we published The Old Stile Press . . . in the twentieth century which gave the history of the Press and described all the books made up till that point. The cover of this book was taken from a specially commissioned pen and wash drawing by Clive Hicks-Jenkins which took the form of a fanciful and highly romantic vision of Catchmays Court, the home of the Press and of ourselves. Bang in the middle of the spine was a single sheep. The conceit at that time was that, if you put a line of copies on a shelf, then you got a line of single sheep!

To the astonishment of all concerned, ten years have passed and that time has seen the production of a respectable number of serious and major publications . . . which of course do not get a mention in the first Bibliography. So, for most of this year, I have been writing and photographing away towards the production of The Old Stile Press . . . the next ten years which (I am thrilled to say) has already been printed and is with the binder as I write. I am (relieved and) happy to be able to say that it has turned out rather well and we are very happy with it.

At the very last minute (because of pressure of work) Clive H-J managed to complete for us the long-ago asked-for painting for the cover. It is again a fanciful take on Catchmays Court but this time is in full colour (as is the entire book, incidentally) and, yes, on the spine there are TWO sheep.

This post is merely a slight over-boiling of excitement on our part about the imminent arrival of the book and we will be posting again soon with photographs, prices and full descriptions. Ordering can, therefore, wait until then BUT do email, if you would like, so as to get your name down on the reservation list . . .

. . . especially if you might be considering one of the 15 Special Copies (a number are bespoke already) for which Frances has been gathering together sample pages and whatnot of almost all the books made during this period together with many other items.

Editing the evening sky

2010-10-19T14:40:00.006+01:00

Heartened by the fact that four or five people, quite separately, have said, during the last few days, that they are avid readers of this blog and that they like some of the photographs, I am encouraged to get some recent ones 'up'.

After posting on previous occasions my 'editing' of rocks and sand and one thing and another, I present this tiny exercise very modestly as it was all over in two or three minutes and I did not take many shots!

I should incidentally say a thankyou to Frances for drawing my attention to these sights in time for me to grab my camera before it was too late!

And, as a ps, here are some studies of a rose hedge in October.

The leaves are still full of green life but the hips . . .

those that were not eaten by the finches and whatnot when they were so invitingly scarlet . . .

have decayed into a state which I find distasteful and beautiful at the same time.

Où est 'le spectre de la rose'?

Candles and sunshine for Peter Reddick

2010-10-07T19:04:00.004+01:00

Peter Reddick
1924 - 2010

Today, Frances and I were happy to be able to join many scores of his family and friends as Peter Reddick was laid to rest in the remarkably welcoming acres of the woodland burial site close to his home town of Bristol.

Of course, the weather smiled on the event. From morning, it was a scintillatingly beautiful day - with bright and warm sun and a cooling breeze that moved the leaves of the established trees at the margins and the young ones planted near individual plots. "Peter would have loved it", everyone said.

People greeted each other over coffee and then moved to a beautifully reappointed stone barn that was the chapel/meeting house. We opened our throats with some good singing (as Peter had done when he elected to join choirs very late in his life). We had readings of various sorts and long moments of deep silence during which individuals spoke of how much they had valued Peter's friendship. The variety of these, wood engravers, teachers, Quakers, as well as Peter's children and a sturdy crew of grandsons.

After this, we all made our way to the spot where Peter was to be laid. Crackly dry leaves were thrown into the grave and we returned to enjoy delicious plates of food and further conversations with friends.

This was the point when I took up my camera, to aid our memory later.

This is taken through the door of the chapel where, still burning strongly, are the candles which all who were there had moved forward to light.

This is the same scene from inside the building. I had taken the photograph at that moment because that is just how it happened. It was not until I was working on it a bit that I realized quite how remarkably fortunate and apt that moment had been. That is not a fixed light on the floor. Rather, the strong sunlight was simply shining through the window and, at that precise moment, was falling on the exact spot where Peter had been laid, in his gentle-looking basket made of twisted rushes.

Extraordinarily, a wonderful day. Peter's day.

Quince . . . lovely word, lovely jelly!

2010-09-22T11:53:00.003+01:00

We are heading off tomorrow morning for The Whitechapel Gallery in London to look after our stall at The London Art Book Fair. Lots to pack up and last minute things to remember to do.

I just want, however, to make a little post in honour of our Quince tree which has made a jolly good effort this year and has provided us baskets of these strange fruits from which Frances will make delicious jelly.

Inevitable, too, that we should be reminded that Robin and Heather Tanner chose this word (obvious, really!) to show off what a delicious capital Q can do! Here is the the spread from A Country Alphabet so that you can see the pen and ink drawing and an example of Heather's gentle but precise commentary.

Amazing to realize that this book was published 26 years ago. But . . . I must apologise for going on and on about the passage of time. This is what comes from being stuck to the production of a Bibliography for such a long time!

It's proof time!

2010-09-20T15:56:00.002+01:00

This morning arrived from J.W. Northend Limited a large packet of proofs - for The Old Stile Press, the next ten years. This is, as I have mentioned a number of times before, the sequel to our first Bibliography (The Old Stile Press, in the Twentieth Century) which we published in 2000 and which, if numerous comments can be cited, has been enjoyed by many.

This new book I have prepared entirely on my computer - with the help of InDesign, Photoshop and a digital camera. When I was not doing other things in a particular day, I could usually deal with, and put behind me, one double-page spread. It was very hard work but I really loved doing it and I am feeling so relieved that (having sent one single recordable DVD to them) the proofs that the printer has sent looked just as they should.

However long my bit took, the printer's schedule is fast and furious. I would not be surprised if our book (even though it is 236pp and in 4 colour throughout) will be put on the press after breakfast and will be completed by lunch!

SO . . . Before you know it, we will be back with further information, including price etc.

If, however, you would like to 'reserve' a copy now, we will happily put you on the list.

This is particularly important if you feel even a theoretical desire to have a 'Special'. There is to be one (as last time) and it is likely to number 15 copies only.

Also as last time, I shall be printing a tiny keepsake or jeu d'esprit and this will be slipped (at no extra cost) into the first 250 copies to be sold.

A one way trip to Bloomington, Indiana!

2010-09-09T14:42:00.003+01:00

These have been really exciting times for us here . . . but first I must indulge in a little history.

When I was a junior editor in London, at the start of my (commercial) Publisher's career, I was already an avid hunter for books - of different sorts but especially for Illustrated Books and the productions from Private Presses. If I had a free lunch hour, I could just get to The British Museum with enough time to see exhibitions and such like but otherwise there were (then) a number of really great bookshops within reach in that part of central London and I would almost run to one or another to have as much time there as possible before more or less running back. No time for actual lunch, you notice, or a sandwich on the hoof at most. One of my favourite places to go was the emporium of Bertram Rota.

This wonderful photograph is of one of their 'homes' but, although it was a long time ago, I cannot claim to have known them in those illustrious days. This was Bodley House and I think the photograph was taken in 1964. For those who know London, the flower shop next door is at one end of Albany and it was in that famous and fashionable apartment complex that Bertram Rota started.

By the time I came on the scene, as a shy book lover embarrassed that I was always gazing at the glorious tomes laid out in their glass cases but never buying anything, Rota had moved again . . . but not far. The road in the photograph above in which the photographer seems to be standing, and which shoots off in the direction of about 8 o'clock, is Savile Row (from which I have never bought a suit!) and it was to there that they had moved in my time and where I plucked up enough courage to visit.

Time passes . . .

I begin to print and we have books to publish. In the early days, the indefatigable Frances tramps round the streets of London with a case of books hoping to get booksellers to stock them. Not easy then and pretty well impossible now! At Rota, however, she enjoyed an increasingly warm welcome until, over the years, the shop (now moved yet again to Long Acre) were happy to hold a complete set of those of our books still in print. They did us a marvellous service, of course, by showing the books to visitors to London, especially from overseas.

At this time, our great ally at Rota's was Anthony Rota (son of Bertram) and the antiquarian book world lost a giant when he died last year. Now at the helm is his son, Julian, and with him we come up to date and the start of this current little saga.

Decades ago, when Libraries and Museums had pots of money for acquisitions, we heard that a number of egregious Private Presses had had their Archives purchased and borne away to this Library in America or that Museum in the UK. If I had been asked the question, I would have thought that in today's dire financial climate, there would be little money for such activities.

HOWEVER, and here I finally get to the point, Julian Rota contacted us some months ago and asked whether we would like him to try to 'place' our Archive in this way - he being adept in this activity. We were amazed but said yes please and privately thought it a bit of a fantasy.

Finally, however, a phone call told us that he had been successful and could we pack all our relevant correspondence, documents and suchlike pertaining to the activities of The Old Stile Press over the last thirty years and a carrier would arrive to deliver the lot to:

The Lilly Library
Bloomington
Indiana
USA

As usual it was mostly Frances who undertook the searching for files and packing boxes (I was busy writing and laying out on my computer our second Bibliography - but more of that later) but eventually the day came and here are some snaps to remind us of the day when we waved all those boxes away to America!

I need hardly say that we feel enormously proud at this development. Indiana may be a bit of a step away from The Wye Valley but we know that our stuff will be in amazingly good company. The Lilly Library owns an early Gutenburg Bible, MSS by Burns, J.M.Synge and James Barrie (Peter Pan, I think) and the Archives of Sylvia Plath, Ezra Pound, Orson Welles among many others. Can't be bad!

The Library also has the right to purchase future tranches of material relating to the Press' activities . . . so we had better just get on with it!

a bit of a special day . . .

2010-08-24T15:10:00.002+01:00

We are not usually ones for foisting on others the more personal details of our lives but, probably encouraged but a nice lunchtime bottle of wine with our prawns, sunshine and wonderful wind in the birches and the aspen, I am posting these photos without even consulting Frances, because I would like to share our happiness with our friends.

What are we celebrating?

Our 47th wedding anniversary. Seems like only yesterday!

Worth and Value

2010-08-08T18:20:00.004+01:00

Sometime in the early 1960s, my new job involved lots of driving round the country (UK) but I always tried to find a moment to pop into any antique or second-hand bookshop I passed. My funds then were by no means lavish but I did pick up one or two items which still give me pleasure and which retain the fascination they had when I came upon them.

One such item is pictured here . . . although it only got its frame a couple of years ago and previously lived in a portfolio, being visited rather seldom. But each time I renew acquaintance I am stunned anew. I get tingling up the spine as with certain pieces of music. I get a magnifying glass and go for journeys round this enchanted land.

Here are a few close-ups and, if you click, you should get them much bigger.

The complete piece of paper is only 18.5 x 10cm but look below at the trio (or quartet, if you count the horse!) to the extreme left. These characters, walking or riding up the hill with their long pikes or staves are recognizably individuals - and each about 1mm.

Below is my favourite bit, much enlarged. The idea of sailing under those wind-blossomed sails towards that idyllic shore-side town seemed utterly romantic.

So, what do we have here? Clearly it was a piece of an engraving but, until recently, my almost complete lack of knowledge of the subject did not help me towards an identification. A year or so ago, I did have the opportunity of talking to an 'expert' and I showed him the sliver of paper. For a few seconds I could almost hear the hard-disk whirring in his head and then a finger shot out and pointed to a spikey thing about a quarter of the bottom edge in from the right. 'Ah', he said, 'It is Albrecht Durer's The Sea Monster but you have lost all the main subject and an inch off the top. It is, I am afraid, OF NO VALUE'

INDEED! Here is the proper thing (off the internet) and it is indeed magnificent but what have I got?
I have a piece of paper more than five hundred years old on which is printed an image which was drawn and engraved in 1498 by Durer, aged 27 at the time. It is, I gather, now thought that he probably did not actually cut his wood blocks himself but I am sure that it would be he who was guiding the burin So, at the very least, this paper was directly printed from a piece of metal that was touched in one way or another by this consummate artist.

Of no value . . . . . . ?

Another coincidence

2010-08-08T11:02:00.002+01:00

For the past many weeks, I have hardly been in my printing office at all . . . rather I have been holed up with my computer, camera, Photoshop and InDesign wrestling with (but actually much enjoying) the putting together of the 'sequel' to our Bibliography, now ten years old. The photograph below is of a selection of spreads in rough proof form. I am hoping that my task will be completed in a few weeks so then it will be up to the printer and binder how long it will be before publication. I will keep you posted.

It happened that I was working on the four pages concerning the book, The Girl from the Sea that was published quite recently. This is a posthumously published "Play for Voices" by George Mackay Brown with wonderfully atmospheric woodcuts and wood engravings by the American artist Michael Onken.

On that very day we had the pleasure of being able to welcome Llewellyn Thomas and his family for a short 'motorway stop' in their journey from west Wales to their home in Kent.

The coincidence lay in that it was Llewellyn who had, way back in 1991, made the (fiendishly detailed and difficult to print!) wood engravings for In the Margins of a Shakespeare also by George Mackay Brown. This book (long out of print, sadly) was one of my favourites and we were all greatly pleased when George said how well he thought of it.

He was unable to see the 'Selkies' book of course but I hope (and feel) that he would have approved as much.

So . . . now back to the Bibliography!

Sensuality in the garden!

2010-08-02T17:35:00.003+01:00

When, years ago, I first saw the flower photographs of Robert Mapplethorpe, I stared and stared to try to work out how he made them so unashamedly erotic. Yes there was choice of subject, angle, reflections on the surface and so on but I ended up reckoning that much, if not most, of Nature really is, shall we say, sensual.

Now is the best time of year of course so . . . out came the camera.

I hope you can click the three above as large as possible. Living Rodins!

And here, by way of a coda, is a cool Frances walking into the light. When I look at the composition of this I find myself thinking of a painting of Stanley Spencer. I can't quite think why!

Silent Printer

2010-06-24T18:34:00.003+01:00

A dish of elderflower cordial to share with all those with whom I used to communicate on a reasonably regular basis but have hidden away from for far too long! I am so sorry. I am not going to attempt excuses or even explanations. It is just that this exquisite month has swung the balance so spectacularly away from the horrors of the winter that pleasure in life returns and (almost) some creativity. I am happily battling away with writing, photographing and laying out the second Bibliography and working on a programme of books to print, which may be somewhat shorter and maybe simpler than in earlier years but it will keep me happy and busy and will, I am sure, produce some worthwhile additions to the catalogue.

Here is my OFFICE and my WORKSHOP! Not true, of course but I have to say that a goodly amount of time this month has been spent here (I insist on referring to it as my 'stately pleasure-dome'!) or elsewhere out of doors . . . depending on strength and direction of sun and other important details!

"Ee says to me . . . and I says to 'im"

A few more transfigured trees . . .

2010-05-31T16:47:00.004+01:00

"Never knowingly understood"

2010-05-26T12:32:00.008+01:00

The photograph immediately above will be instantly recognizable (to all that have fallen under his spell over the years) as Ivor Cutler . . . of blessed memory. The, probably unfinished, portrait above was painted by Hans Schwarz (who was a neighbour and purveyor of weird and wonderful prints, books, antiques and all sorts when we lived in Blackheath during our 'life' in London) and discovered by us recently.

Here are a couple more photographs of the great man whom I first saw in 1963 in London's Comedy Theatre at An Evening of British Rubbish with Bruce Lacey (with his robots) and The Alberts. His long-faced songs, unique Scottish accent and tortured portable harmonium combined to keep me (and thousands of others) in stitches of laughter.

A song entitled "Shoplifters" involved (naturally) a request to know whether you would like your shop lifted - high, up in the sky.

I now get to the reason for this post. A number of years ago Frances and I were part of a Private Press Book Fair being held in The Royal Festival Hall. Suddenly I looked up and realized that Ivor (or Mister Cutler as he insisted with a twinkle on being addressed by those he had not been introduced to) Cutler was walking down the aisle straight towards us. I was instantly turned to jelly. I almost ran away and perhaps that would have been better than the ludicrously awful performance of shyness and nerves that I subjected the poor man to. Believe me, it was dreadful. He was most understanding.

The next year, the same event happened again and there was Mr Cutler bearing down upon us. This time, the dear man came straight up to me, shook my hand and suggested a little walk. We walked and talked and ended up in The Poetry Library (which used to be within the RFH) and compared notes on poets we liked. Then he was on his way leaving me to realize that this whole exercise had been to put me at my ease and to expunge my blithering idiotness of last year.

He did also introduce us to the wallet which contained his famous Able-label 'publications' and he handed over to us ones that he thought we would enjoy. I have always thought this one of the most powerful publishing formats ever devised and a study of the internet shows that there are many others who treasure the tiny tracts that were solemnly handed to them.

As one and then another were passed to us, Frances said she was sad not to have something to give to him. He retorted that he did not give things to be given something back and that Frances looked the sort of person who would appreciate the gift and share it with others.

We kept the treasures in a pot on our mantlepiece and they came out regularly to be shown to visitors. About a year ago I looked in the pot and found nothing. Had some over-zealous cleaner (which we do not have) thrown them away? No amount of searching revealed them.

Then suddenly, just the other day, when looking for something quite other, there they were . . . 'tidied away'. They are now safely returned to the pot to delight suitable visitors but also I was able to photograph them. I hope this shot can be clicked big enough to allow you to read every word.

And yet . . .

2010-05-18T22:43:00.002+01:00

. . . having said so firmly that I was not going to 'traipse round with my camera', today was so deliciously lovely that I couldn't resist! I will just let these images speak for themselves on the subject of the piece of heaven in which we are lucky enough to live. Small wonder that an old name for this corner of the Wye Valley was "God's Pocket".

Transfiguration

2010-05-16T11:45:00.002+01:00

The dramatic blast and whoosh of Spring this month (despite jackets and heating still being needed the moment the sun goes behind a cloud) has been so universally felt and talked about that I do not feel a traipse round the garden with a camera would add very much to this blog or to the world at large.

And yet I feel it SO fiercely. The winter we have just gone through was so cold and dark, metaphorically for us as well as meteorologically, that I despaired of ever being returned to the light.

But the Green Man finally began to stir and some brave birds began to challenge the darkness with a tentative chorus at dawn. Now there is an ecstasy of song from every bush and yesterday we saw three martins flying, although they have not yet returned to our nests. The sunlight lays open the unimaginably youthful greens of the trees and it is this one sight that I have tried to capture - to stand for all the rest.

This Aspen is my favourite tree. It looks wonderful, it sounds wonderful and we planted it!

Abstracts at the seaside

2010-04-14T10:49:00.005+01:00

He's been at it again!
Down to Pembrokeshire we went, the moment a big sun showed up on the online weather forecasts for more than an hour or two at a time. Wonderfully restorative. Snow? What snow?

It is frustrating not to be able to paint pictures like this but very exciting to see them literally lying around on the beach waiting to be discovered and recorded.

Click to increase the size of these canvasses!

This is my favourite. It is called "Sand, historic coal traces and an action-painting dog"!

One tiddler does not a fish supper make . . .

2010-04-02T16:42:00.000+01:00

. . . but this poor little creature (help came too late, I am afraid) is the very first to have been discovered on our riverside field!

High tide this morning and a lot of rain on previous days so the river overran its banks. Our small friend must have swum happily into this gentle new backwater and got left high and dry

HERE

where the arrow points!

Renewed elegance for our Website

2010-04-01T12:36:00.000+01:00

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.

www.oldstilepress.com

Lithographs from the 'fifties

2010-02-27T15:08:00.008Z

I was recently rambling round the website of a friendly art dealer and identified a couple of lithographs dating from the mid- (nineteen) fifties and deliciously redolent of the period. I did not recognize either of the names involved, but that did not seem to matter very much when put beside the deliciousness of the prints themselves.

The dealer kindly came to see us and brought the two lithos (along with, I confess, one or two other delights) and the prints showed themselves to be as full of life and zest as we had thought. He revealed that these two had been part of a folder of c.10 which he had acquired. We agreed that the most probable source was an art college of the period and this was student work. The fact that two of them had the words "Intermediate Lithograph" written on them seems to underwrite that theory. In the end the dealer said that, as we had paid for the two best and he felt the the folder might best be kept together, he would like us to have the lot. What a star!

But we know nothing more about them. They are all clearly dated 1955-58 but there is no indication of a College or anything else. I'd love to know . . . so, with no great amount of hope of unearthing the pin from this particular hay stack, I will add a list of the people who signed the prints, in case the group of names stimulates the memory of some old alumnus or some lecturer recognizes a particular style of a particular College of the day.

That would be fun but I don't mind at all if nothing comes of the quest. I, at school at that time, was loving books full of images like this and seeing such lithographs in Lyons' Corner Houses and so on, and I just think they are glorious.

The names: M. Whittaker, R. Swift, Noel Kenning, D.J.Murphy and a number by Anon!.

Stunning "Plague" images

2010-02-18T15:13:00.006Z

We have described HERE the saga of how the final copy of the extraordinary piece of work, that Angela Lemaire made in a tiny edition when she was a student, came to us and was eventually given a designed binding for our library by Nesta Rendall Davies.

HERE, more recently, we described how we could not resist making available a small but immaculately produced and housed edition (only 25 copies for sale) and how the master printer Martyn Grimmer was battling away in Bristol to take impressions of the plates.

This task has now been completed and Angela has also finally managed to beat the snow to do her signing. The Binder is in the process of making the necessary drop back boxes and, when they arrive, I will take photographs of the folio in its entirety. Here, for the moment, is Frances . . .

. . . collating the plates with their tissues and the text pages.

And here, because I couldn't resist, are a number of close-ups of these amazing prints. Powerfully horrible they are by clear design but these feelings, for me anyway, are swept clear away by a recognition of their clear-eyed truthfulness and their extraordinary beauty.

It's even deeper in Greenland!

2010-02-06T11:59:00.006Z

The redoubtable Nancy Campbell was most recently staying here about a month ago in order to work with us on the preparation of the second helping of our Bibliography. More about that anon.

She was regaling us with excitements and fears about her upcoming adventure - a residency of two months at Upernavik Museum in Western Greenland.

Her Blog HERE is always a joy and an erudite feast but her tales from the North are beginning to be really something and the least we can do is to is to steer our friends in her direction.

For an old snowphobe like me, this photo of the little house she has to live in (taken at midday, no doubt!), is pretty daunting but I have to say that this one is quite breathtakingly beaautiful.

Do visit her blog and enjoy the goings on. For the record, I have to claim that early experiments with snow/maple syrup were conducted at Catchmays Court!

A few dates . . .

2010-01-29T17:52:00.003Z

For those eager book buyers who like to see and handle books before adding them to their shelves, here are some occasions during the year when you have the opportunity to enjoy displays - not just of The Old Stile Press books - but those from other presses too.

During the Bath Literature Festival the Gallery in Chapel Row, Bath will be showing artists’ books from some of the members of the Fine Press Book Association:
13 February - 2 March

Then later in the year:
3,4,5 June we shall be showing downstairs at the London International Antiquarian Book Fair 2010 at Olympia. Here we are in the company of many major booksellers who have for sale treasures from the whole tradition of private presses. It is good to be surrounded by examples of the fine printing and imagery which inspired us to use those skills for contemporary book making.

23-26 September are the dates for the second London Art Book Fair at the Whitechapel Gallery - this is the Fair which has succeeded Marcus Campbell’s fairs at the ICA. We exhibited at the first show last year - and here we are in the company of all sorts of contemporary artist’s books from the unique copy to small editions by an individual alongside major trade publishers who specialise in books about art and artists. We enjoy displaying what we do and finding so many who are unaware of the output of presses working with old traditions to create new and exciting books with contemporary artists and writers.

2-3 October will see the Oak Knoll Fest 2010 in New Castle, Delaware, USA - we have still to decide upon that.

A few people have said that they ‘look forward to seeing us’ at the Watercolours & Works on Paper Fair - this year to be at the Science Museum in London (3-7 February). Sadly, however, this new venue does not have sufficient space to include the group of presses showing their work - so we won’t be able to see you there.

Congratulations to Philip Gross

2010-01-19T14:14:00.004Z

I would like to lie and say that this was a photograph I took this very morning to catch the moment when the poet was told that he had won the T.S. Eliot Prize for Poetry for 2009 but, apart from fear of my nose growing long, the scene of Summertime outside the window makes the idea not entirely convincing!

Rather, the photograph was taken at an earlier moment of rejoicing for us, namely when Philip Gross and Peter Reddick sat down together to sign the copies of The Abstract Garden which I had finished printing a short time before.

To remind our friends of this book, here is a photograph of the Titlepage and just one of the page openings each of which consists of a poem, a wood engraving and their careful position together on the page.

More can be found out about this this book (one of our greatest favourites, I have to say) by clicking on this link.

But the excitement of this day is, of course, is Philip's triumphant winning of the T.S.Eliot Prize for his book The Water Table, published by Bloodaxe.

The following is taken from a press release from The Poetry Society:-

The judges of this year’s Prize, Chair Simon Armitage, and fellow-poets Penelope Shuttle and Colette Bryce, reached their decision after months of deliberation and debate. The winner was chosen from a field of ten highly-regarded poets.

Simon Armitage said:

“A book of great clarity and concentration, continually themed but always lively and alert in its use of language. Gross takes us from Great Flood to subtly invoked concerns for our watery planet; this is a mature and determined book, dream-like in places, but dealing ultimately with real questions of human existence.”

I know I promised. . .

2010-01-14T11:34:00.005Z

. . . but it seems to have taken over everybody's lives!

Just as the first lot of snow was showing slight signs of beginning to melt away, there was a grand encore (especially dramatic in this part of the world) which revealed this lot as morning broke yesterday and before the deer and the foxes and the badgers and all the multitude of birds had tramped all over it. Even I had to admit that it was was looking rather magical so out I went to capture a few shots.

All my life, I have had the reputation of being a grouchy old grump when it comes to snow. I have never really worked out why but it seems to addle my head. I suffer from disorientation that comes from a type of sensory deprivation and creative thought (or anything but the lowest level of mental activity, eg filing) is quite impossible for the duration.

Outside, as I write, there is quite a convincing sound of dripping so I am daring to hope that real life may be restored to me before too long and that I may be able to embark upon all the tasks that await the restoration of my faculties.

And I might even get back to blogging . . .

A Very Happy Christmas!

2009-12-21T17:18:00.003Z

Snow finally fell last night and enabled me to post this 'card' to all of our friends at this festive time of the year. I do, however, promise to spare you any further snow photos. We have, I reckon, had many too many this year already!

Just a bit of fun! Be your own Jn Pk

2009-12-17T18:56:00.001Z

Jackson Pollock by Miltos Manetasgreat free widgetsWidgetboxMore info

Progress with "The Plague"

2009-11-23T14:36:00.005Z

Martyn Grimmer, the master printer charged with the printing of Angela Lemaire's etched plates for the publication described earlier on this Blog - HERE, has just said that he is about halfway through the project and will finish in December. We have not yet been too specific about how we are going to republish this fascinating project so watch this space!

Martyn has also sent these enticing photographs of completed prints and one of the plates and I hasten to post them here. The plate in these photographs looks to me more like part of the Mask of Agamemnon than something to print from!

You know about the Partridge in a Pear Tree,

2009-10-31T22:29:00.003Z

. . . well, here is a Pheasant in an Apple Tree!

And here is a less than perfectly successful attempt to capture his exit from the scene!

A change of scene

2009-10-21T15:13:00.004+01:00

We decided to take ourselves away for a couple of days to try to rid ourselves of some accumulated end-of-summer-that-hardly-was glooms. Partially successful only, to be honest, but I was happy to return with some of the inevitable camera full of photographs . . . of which these are a proportion.

I somehow feel they are different from my usual (blowsy, romantic!) style and that they rather reflect my mood . . . or perhaps that is simply my take on things.

If you can spare the time, do click them bigger for they seem to want as much space as they can get, as do I!

They are not intended to provide memories of particular places but, for the record, we were in Lyme Regis, Portland and Cerne Abbas - all in the county of Dorset.

. . . and finally

a photograph of Frances reprising her end-of-the-pier triumph in the role of Winnie in Samuel Beckett's Happy Days!

It must be Autumn

2009-10-08T12:33:00.004+01:00

First of all, an early morning spider's web taken just before we went to London for the shenanigans described below and when, if I am honest, I was having my usual 'missing you already' feelings about this place before leaving it even for a couple of days!

The remaining images, taken today, are by way of being a homage to those of my favourite neo-romantic painters who gave me such frissons as a youngster by putting seedheads in the foreground of their landscape paintings (eg Alan Reynolds). So often these echoed the hard angularity of the sculpture of that age and contrasted thrillingly with the softer shapes and textures of the spaces behind.

Fun and Games at The Whitechapel Gallery

2009-09-29T14:31:00.004+01:00

The McDowalls stepped out of their hotel and were assailed by wafts of warm air bearing scents of exotic food preparation and the sounds of multifarious city life. Had they returned to Italy for another holiday? Sitting down for a pavement breakfast, Frances sips her coffee while I turn 90 degrees in my seat to snap the Duomo . . . or rather the Gherkin, almost as impressive in its way! It was pretty well our first visit to this part of London since it had become a centre d'animation in so many ways, and it happened to be a gloriously sunny and almost hot end of September.

NOT a holiday, in fact, but a pleasant prelude to a three-day stint in The Whitechapel Gallery where we were showing our wares at The London Art Book Fair.

This was a 'new' event although it was the development of a number of fairs that had happened in former years. The Fair was hectic throughout but in a good way. We were most pleased to have met (and often talked at length to) people we had not met before in any form. Especially happy to meet young designers and printmaking students who clearly liked the books we make when they could have been expected to look askance at objects so clearly NON-trendy.

This event marked the first public appearance of EQUUS (see major post below) and the book was much admired. It had been planned that, at the start of the Fair, there would be a small gathering of people who had been concerned, especially Clive Hicks-Jenkins, the artist, and Callum James whose chance remark to us had started this particular quadruped galloping!

This shows Clive (in the centre) with Peter Wakelin and, on the right of the photograph, the unmistakeable figure of Simon Callow.

Simon Callow has been a friend of Clive's for some years and he helped the artist during his work on the many images for the book with much thoughtful comment . . . especially while Callow was actually taking the part of Dr Dysart in the production last year that toured the country.

He had much of interest to say here as well and we were very grateful that he had found time to visit this newborn book . . . and to turn some heads in the Gallery!

EQUUS: here it is at last!

2009-08-25T14:37:00.011+01:00

EQUUS
The play by Sir Peter Shaffer
Images by Clive Hicks-Jenkins

Equus was first produced on stage in 1973 and, in its first published form, Peter Shaffer wrote of the dangers of ‘flatly setting down on paper what was far from flat on the stage, and listing inexpressively details of the work which, in accumulation, became deeply expressive’. John Dexter directed that first production ‘powerfully through suggestion’, ‘. . . he charges the action of the play with electric life. He is a master of gesture and economy.’

More than thirty years later those words could be written about Clive Hicks-Jenkins' imagery which now accompanies the text. He wanted to create his own universe for this new expression of Shaffer’s story. ‘Meditations and inventions, rather than recollections of past productions’ were his aim.

This is a long, dramatic text of a dreadful event committed by a highly disturbed young man. The characters endeavour to explore the mental world in which such a deed could be comprehensible but the power of the play is in the extraordinary relationship of the young man and his psychiatrist. Understanding the overwhelming nature of Alan’s love of horses becomes the key and the imagery focuses on the struggle between horse and man and emergent sexuality.

124pp. 325x235mm. Bodoni type. Regency Klassica paper. Images by Clive Hicks-Jenkins, multiple ground drawings printed from photopolymer blocks. Text printed by J.W. Northend. Cased binding, executed by The Fine Bookbindery, with printed paper sides and chemise slipcase printed from wood.

ISBN-13 987-0-907664-83-3

Main Edition: 200 numbered copies signed by the artist. £275

Special Edition: 12 copies (10 for sale) signed by the artist. £950
For the special edition, the book (within its chemise) is as described above but it is housed in a drop-back box together with an articulated maquette such as the artist is wont to make for himself to provide a 'model' for painting or drawing. In addition to the one model that has been made up, there is another copy on two sheets, as designed, which could also be made up into a second maquette. The artist has also provided an original drawing for each copy (one of his studies for an image in the book) together with an original linocut which was made, especially for this edition, on an EQUUS theme. Both of these are signed by the artist.

Further photographs of the binding and text pages of the main edition are given below. Some images of the goodies included in the Special Edition will be posted at a later stage!

EQUUS: how the OSP edition came about

2009-08-25T10:40:00.011+01:00

Over the years, there have been many ways in which we have found texts which tempt us to work with them and many ways also in which we have discovered artists whose work we can visualise within one of our books. Our newest venture is a dramatic example of these arcane processes.

This remarkable (and vast) drawing in conte crayon is by Clive Hicks-Jenkins and has hung in our hall since 2001 when it was shown in his Mari Lwyd exhibition in Newport Museum and Art Gallery. We are constantly moved, torn apart, rendered speechless by the power of this picture . . .

. . . as indeed was our friend, Callum James, who happened to be staying a night with us some time ago. Sleepless (not unusual for this perpetual motion man!) at 2am or thereabouts, he found himself standing in front of it for an hour or more.

Not long afterwards he went to one of the early performances of Equus in the 2007 production of Peter Shaffer’s play with Richard Griffiths and Daniel Radcliffe in the lead roles. The next day he visited our stand at the Watercolours and Drawings Fair in London. He rushed in saying ‘you have to put that play and that artist together - they are meant’.

We did indeed put it to Clive Hicks-Jenkins who then declared how overwhelmed he had been by the play when he first saw it in the 1970s. He had always hoped he might direct it in those earlier days when he was a choreographer and theatre director and had also worked with puppets and figures such as John Napier had created for the horses in that first production. The idea grew on him . . .

The author and his agent were agreeable to the possibility of such a book and so Clive and Nicolas set about finding a way of presenting this long, dramatic text in relation to images which Clive was determined should not detract from the language of the drama but would enhance the moods and states of mind of the characters as they moved through their confusion and distress.

The imagery was created in ink but on multiple grounds. Line work on paper but solid work, with techniques such as sgraffito, on a transparent overlay. These were combined on photopolymer blocks to print the image, in black, on to the page on which the text (using a deeply dense green ink) had already been printed.

We add here a few images to give an idea of what is soon to be a most spectacular book. After what has been a mammoth labour on all sides, we are absolutely thrilled with the result. Sneak previewers say it is probably one of our best!

The bindery are at work now and we will post lots more photographs in a few days time - together with important details such as price!

We are to going to ' launch' the book on 25 September at the London Art Book Fair in the
Whitechapel Gallery, 77-82 Whitechapel High Street, London E1 7QX
tel. 020 7522 7888

Underground: Aldgate East, Liverpool St, Tower Gateway DLR

Friday 25 September: Private view 2pm-5pm: Open to Public 5-11pm
Saturday 26: 11am - 6pm
Sunday 27: 11am - 6pm

'New' wood engravings from Peter Reddick

2009-08-13T17:10:00.003+01:00

However much fun it may be to obtain pictures, or whatever, from sympathetic galleries and dealers, it is even more rewarding to have them direct from the artist.

A fantasy version of this sort of transaction could involve paintings torn, still dripping with paint, from an artist's easel or a printmaker just popping across to his Albion so that a particular block could be rolled up so a proof could be taken! The other day we received two lovely wood engravings . . . but through a process very different from the one I have just described!

Peter Reddick had come to see us about something quite other and I announced that I had 'rediscovered' an article about him, together with two other wood engravers, in Volume 7 of the splendid journal Motif - seen below with its glorious cover by Alan Davie.

Now this, as you can see (together with other mouth-watering offerings) from the Contents below, was published in

1961!

I found that I greatly admired all Peter's work in this article (together with the others artists) but there were two prints that I thought were incredibly strong and would be seen as innovative now, let alone then.

Absurd though it seemed to attempt to order a commodity from a 'catalogue' dated 1961, I nevertheless revealed my interest to Peter and wondered whether he might possibly have a proof of either or both lurking around somewhere. Peter said he had no idea but that he would search through his box labelled "Early Stuff".

Wonderfully, he was able to find just what I had wanted and a swopping bargain (another very satisfying thing to do) was struck.

Thank you Peter!

Thoughts on some books, back from the binders.

2009-07-02T18:30:00.005+01:00

Although, of course, I complete the printing of each of our books there and then (and it cannot be reprinted), the binding of the folded and collated sheets is done in batches. We might start off by binding half the edition and, if the book catches many eyes, we might be back for more within a few months. It could however be that the final tranche of copies goes to the binder a decade, or more, after first publication.

We are very happy with this. A good start should pay us back for the cost of actual outgoings such as paper and, of course, the binding, after which we are very content with a succession of sales over months or years. It is exciting when we 'meet', at a book fair or online, a collector who is passionate about this or that sort of book which is one of our specialities but has not been aware of us . . . until now!

Freshly bound copies of these three books have just arrived from the binder. As it happens, each of these, very different, books was published quite some time ago but I, for one, like them still and am quite proud of them. I remember the designing of them and discussions with the artists as the projects developed and I am aware, with sadness, that two of the three are no longer with us.

Over the years since these bindings were first designed and materials chosen, a number of types of cloth have been discontinued and alternatives have had to be chosen. Other small changes have had to be made but it makes us VERY happy to know that the HUMAN BEINGS who were responsible for creating these bindings in the first place remain exactly the same now.

The Fine Bindery has given way to The Fine Book Bindery and the financial structures and ownership have changed over the years but we are happy to know that we can get initial advice and helpful reactions to our (often daft) first thoughts from the same expert who advised us more than two decades ago and that the sewers and the case-makers and the spine blockers are again as they always were!

Fuller details about these books can be found on our website, if you wish to turn them up.

In the matter of their prices, the figures on the website will be the same as they have always been for that has been our policy wherever possible. This means that many of our early books seem almost ridiculously cheap for what they are. [Indeed we often see secondhand copies offered via the book-search websites at higher prices than we are still charging for new copies!]

Inevitably, however, costs rise and Frances and I feel that must increase the prices of these three books on September 1st 2009, together with a number of other titles, BUT any orders received before that time will be charged at the existing prices. Run for your chequebooks!

GYMNOPAEDIAE
images by J. Martin Pitts

THE SEAFARER
translated by Kevin Crossley-Holland images by Inger Lawrance

THE FLUTE OF SARDONYX
by Edmund John images by Nicholas Wilde

Before they all go over . . .

2009-06-28T17:50:00.006+01:00

Sunday evening. I've had a good day in the printing office, enjoying the advantages of its stone walls and cave-like feeling as the temperatures here creep up the dizzy 20s!

All sorts of things I should do this evening, I am sure, but I just thought I would indulge myself by posting a number of ROSE photographs taken, in one quick go round the garden, a couple of days ago. No captions, no latin names . . . just some photographs I hope you will enjoy.

NOTE: They look so much better enlarged with a click!

Mutantcy and a terrible destruction

2009-06-21T11:18:00.006+01:00

If you have been here before, you may remember the above photograph, a plant of rich and velvety lushness that had just turned up in one of our 'pots'. A Mullein of course. Later it was seen to contain at its heart a diamond of great beauty which I also tried to photograph.

One turn of Fortune's Wheel produced all that deliciousness. Now another turn and all is changed.

The ravages began to be apparent about a week ago but now the complete plant has something of the appearance of a bombed tower block.

The perpetrators look like tigers in their particular jungle but Frances' researches lead us to suspect that they are not on their way to stardom as exotic Hawk Moths, as I had hoped, but, rather more mundanely, they will emerge as Large White Butterflies!

The scent of Lemon Verbena is an important element of the olfactory background to my childhood (along with Sweet Peas and Lilies of the Valley) and I always try to have a pot of it within pinching distance of a route from the house used many times a day.

Apart from the smell there is not much special about the plant in my view except for the fact that it usually fails to 'get going' in the Spring until just after the point when I have spent considerable emotion over its presumed demise!

This year was different! I am no horticulturalist and I have no idea whether this is a common occurrence but I was amazed and fascinated to notice that the plant had contrived to create a double leaf, as you can see here.

Amazing enough for the plant to have done it but I was enthralled at how extraordinarily beautifully it had done the job. I feel that if I were to give a single leaf to all manner of designers, artists, geometers and so on with the request that they design a double version, they would not come up with a more perfect shape than we have here.

Out & About

2009-05-26T16:59:00.004+01:00

Frances says (!)

It may seem, to some readers of this blog, as though we spend all our time wafting about in meadows filled with cow parsley, cornflowers and apple blossom but here are some dates when we leave the sunny slopes and head off to places where our books can be seen and bought!

Olympia - The Antiquarian Book Fair

Thursday 4 June 4pm-9pm
Friday 5 June 11am - 7pm
Saturday 6 June 11am - 5.30pm

Olympia 2 Hammersmith Road London W14 8UX

This is the first time that this famous Fair has included designer bookbinders and a Private Press . . . us. Our stand is downstairs and on the way to refreshing coffee and somewhere to sit down. Quite possibly the perfect position! Do come to the Fair if you can. We can send you a free ticket, if you ask.

Abergavenny Art Shop and Gallery
Each year this exciting gallery shows the work of book artists and this year
Unfolding - celebrates the book in many forms by fine artists, printmakers and applied artists.
6 June - 11 July 2009

London Art Book Fair 2009,
Whitechapel Gallery, London E1
25-27 September 2009

This is the successor to the London Artists’ Book Fair run for many years by Marcus Campbell. He is now expanding our horizons to collaborate with the newly re-furbished Whitechapel Gallery. The aim is to show the work of 70 international artists, bookmakers, gallery presses, publishing houses, art magazines and antiquarian dealers. More details nearer the time . . .

Oxford Fine Press Fair,
Oxford Brookes University
Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 November 2009

The fair happens only every other year and this year promises to have some exciting presses from many parts of the world showing their most recent work, apart from everybody's favourites from around the UK. Again, we will post times and details of speakers nearer the time.

as a special extra:

Larkhall Fine Art Dealers
10 St Margaret Buildings, Bath BA1 2LP
01225 444480

C. F. Tunnicliffe RA OBE The Memorial Collection Part Two

Gallery Hours Tuesday - Saturday 10:30 - 5:30 Other times by appointment

The complete portfolio of nine large wood engravings of birds will be exhibited in the Larkhall gallery throughout June. Prints are available for sale now.

The wonderful wood engravings of birds in this exhibition were printed by Nicolas - but are only on sale from Larkhall Gallery

Happy Birthday to me!

2009-05-22T12:44:00.003+01:00

This post is not designed to generate lots of late birthday cards or even good wishes for this particular day . . . for I prefer to think of every day as special. It is rather me rejoicing yet again that I was born at this, the most beautiful, time of year. My mother always said that I arrived in the middle of the night and that nightingales were singing!

. . . how I wish that this book was one of ours! . . . 6

2009-05-09T17:24:00.011+01:00

Here is a book which I not only objectively admire but which gives me tingles down the spine when I turn its pages. I love sharing the joys of it with friends, not least because the tiny 'run' means that there will not be many other copies around.

It was all a matter of chance, and the need for a quick decision! Towards the end of 1996, Frances and I were staying with some friends in Devonshire. This was interesting enough, because we so seldom leave here, but one evening we were taken to the Private View of an exhibition by members of "The Dartington Printmakers" at The Devon Guild of Craftsmen.

"You should be interested," we were told, "because it takes the form of a book."

We were interested . . . from the very first glance.

On entering the hall where the exhibition was being held, we were faced with the amazing sight of thirty-six (the complete edition!) copies of a large book laid out in an exact grid in the middle of the floor (3 x 12, as I remember), with the design on the cover, striking enough on one copy, making a really dramatic repeat pattern.

I was immediately intrigued and set out to find out what this extraordinary book was. I can best quote a few sentences from the preface by Michael Honnor (the Svengali figure behind the venture, I understand!) in the catalogue.

A Printmakers' Flora is a remarkable limited edition Artists' book. Every part of it has been hand-made at Dartington by twenty one printmakers, a bookbinder and a letterpress printer. The idea was to make a large, luxurious book about British wild flowers in the form of an anthology of their common names. The book would exploit the diversity of the artists taking part and use a wide variety of printmaking techniques. Thirty flowers would be chosen, each illustrated by two Artist's prints. The result is a strikingly handsome, unusual and substantial book, bound in blue silk and printed on heavy artist's paper and hand-made Chinese paper. The edition consists of thirty seven books with one Artist' Proof copy. Twenty three of these belong to the participants, one has been purchased by the V & A, one by the Dartington Hall Trust and three by major collectors. The remaining nine are for sale.

N I N E copies!!! . . . and the private view was simply seething with people who looked to me as if their cheque-books were always at the ready one such occasions!

I should mention that, by now, we had seen the inside of the book. Not by looking at a copy of it (all were on parade on the floor) but, in an adjoining room, in the form of spreads/prints framed on the walls. A further limited edition of each of these prints was for sale and a 'set' of them seemed quite expensive. It seemed to me, however, that having them bound together in a book, would make them more, rather than less, fascinating . . . but then I am a book person.

Another advantage was that, in this form, it seemed to be priced as a book is priced rather than as something from an art gallery. How often have we been surprised and aggrieved at other examples of this but, on this occasion, it worked in our favour because the book contained everything, was a stunning object but the price seemed almost moderate for the wonder that it was.

Anyway, we BOUGHT a copy and have never regretted it. We turn its pages often, particularly in the winter months when spring and summer seem so far away.

I will not comment further but will just let these wonderful pages speak for themselves. You need to know one more thing - the scale of the thing. The book is, by most standards, vast. The spread of the opened book measures 30 inches!

This is positively the last time . . .

2009-05-07T17:51:00.004+01:00

. . . I waste your time with this damn plant BUT, five days after the last photo was posted, the extraordinary sheath-like thing (with another on the way, as you can see) has opened to reveal what would be a bit over the top as a Christmas decoration!

I promise that next time I will post something a bit more to the point but the sap of Spring/Summer does just get into me!

. . . and in less than a month . . . !

2009-05-02T15:39:00.002+01:00

I am truly ashamed at having let so much time pass by since my last post BUT it does offer us the possibility of this piece of 'time-lapse' photography! I cannot remember from last year quite what its flower looks like (although I think we have quite a few more leaves to go yet!) but you may be sure that I will let you see it when the time comes!

This is the Mullein that starred in an earlier post. It too is doing wonderfully well but I just noticed that, at its very heart, there was a little jewel of water . . .

Click the photo bigger . . .

Update on Spring

2009-04-05T16:33:00.005+01:00

I have little doubt that folk around the world will be chewing their fingers in eagerness to know how our amazing rhubarby thing is getting on!

The answer is, I reckon, . . . quite well!

. . . given that the earlier photograph was taken a mere twenty-one days ago! I suddenly realized that there is no clue about scale in this shot so it could be 'read' as being a few inches wide. I therefore ran out with a measuring stick and found that the thing is about 1.5m wide as of Sunday evening! This is, of course, only the beginning. It will become dramatically wider and then the flowers will start. Much taller than me these get. Never fear, I may be persuaded to record further progress!

On a gentler note . . . in fact quite extraordinarily gentle, it seems to me . . . the exquisite Fritillary is still alone in the garden but has delightfully emerged as twins.

Just a couple more shots of corners of the domain.

I must admit that this exquisite view of the stream that flows through our place is just a bit misleading, in that it is rather 'exquisitely' composed to imply that is chuckles and meanders its way like this for yards if not miles and again the scale is deceptive. Having admitted to this I feel wonderfully blessed to have it running as it does through our garden and it DOES chuckle ecstatically!

Finally, an oriental corner . . . with that tree I photographed last year in extravagant blossom again.

In this little pond, there have been, for a number of years, two increasingly splendid goldfish. This winter we really thought they had been taken away by the heron, the stoat or whatever (a fate that befell their 10 little chums in the early years), but, BEHOLD, we have seen them both gliding about pretending to be very grand koi!

Abbey with Post Office Attached

2009-04-03T15:06:00.004+01:00

This is Frances, doing some posting (in the photograph above) and (below) getting a rare 'post' in edgeways!

I wonder how many of all those wonderful people who order our books realise how the parcels begin their journey. Post Offices all over the country have been disappearing to the distress of many - and then sometimes they reappear in unlikely guises in pubs and even churches, I understand. Ours was for a short time a part of a pub which then closed down and now we have what must be the most spectacular of all post offices - this van in the car park next to Tintern Abbey. It travels to several villages and at the appointed hours appears here on all weekdays except Wednesday. Though one might be a little doubtful of the efficiency of such an enterprise, we have known parcels to leave Tintern at 3.30pm and be delivered in Orkney the following day. Journeys to London sometimes take a little longer even though it is so much nearer.

Keeping down the costs of sending parcels is one of the constant tasks of 'the other half'. We have recently discovered that for parcels containing more than a single book (up to 10kgs) they can be collected directly from the house and delivered in the UK within 48 hours for about £8 which seems good. Overseas is not so easy now because the firm with whom we have dealt for many years has just been taken over and is causing us nightmares with soaring prices, lengthy delivery times and staff who don't seem to know what they are doing. I hear you say, like most take overs . . . perhaps, but not with our books please! The post office van takes away all our mail and parcels of single books (which is the greater part of our operation given that we mostly function as a mail order company) - so, long may they flourish and keep going in these difficult times.