Benjamin Britten's "A Christmas Sequence"

One of the most exciting and yet daunting stages in the process of our book building is when we take over from an artist the blocks which we know have taken months if not years for him or her complete.

Recently, on the way to Glasgow for an all too rare visit to our four vivacious grandchildren (and their parents!) we drove through the beautiful Border country to see and and take some photographs of Angela Lemaire and eventually to take over from her three huge boxes of woodblocks.



These cannot be worked on for some time because of other books in the queue but I cannot resist posting one or two proofs because I think they are absolutely fine and I cannot wait to start work!

The book is . . .

A Christmas Sequence: chosen by Benjamin Britten from the Chester Mystery Cycle. With an Introduction by Dr. Andrew Plant and Woodcuts by Angela Lemaire.

[one of the woodblocks and the print that comes from it]

In 1974, Britten worked on this powerful and finely structured text, designed to be the basis of a dramatic production along the lines of Noye's Fludde. Sadly his ill-health prevented all but a tiny amount of musical composition for the project and the composer died in 1976. His 'second draft' will be printed here for the first time.

Black Marigolds . . . first sample copy

In an earlier post, I gave photographs of the two printings I had done towards the binding of this new book . . . but gave no clue as to how they would be deployed. We have now had a first sample from the binder and the answer can be seen.



Further experimental work has to be done to perfect the magnet mechanism which will hold the irregular part of the cover tightly against the front board.

Unusually (and to the horror of many bibliophiles, to be sure!) there is no lettering at all on the outside of the cover. My rationale for this is that I see the whole content as being intensely private and wanting to be secret and anonymous. You have, therefore, to open the book to find what it is, thus . . .




First opening of the book reveals printed endpapers followed by a halftitle . . . before coming to this titlepage.




This post is about the binding but here also is the opening that gives the final page of Gwen Watkins' Preface and the first page of the poem.

It was Gwen's husband, the poet Vernon Watkins, who said that Black Marigolds was the most beautiful love poem he had ever read.

We have yet to put details (and one of our new 'movies') about the book on the website, but it will get there eventually! We do hope lots of people will be interested in this strange but rather beautiful book and, especially in Glenys Cour's amazing images.

I'm very excited about my new tablet!

Thomas Hardy and Mark Cazalet

For the last few years we have been planning, together with Mark Cazalet (seen here with his wife Harriet, Felix and Freya), a selection from Hardy’s poems, written in 1912-13 about his wife, Emma.

Here we quote from Claire Tomalin's recent book Thomas Hardy, The Time-Torn Man, on her view of the importance of this group of poems:


The sequence, which (Thomas Hardy) called “Poems of 1912-13", adding the words Veteris vestigia flammae (‘traces of old flames’), makes up one of the finest and strangest celebrations of the dead in English poetry. It is cast in a different mould from Lycidas, Adonais or In Memoriam, fragmented, less marmoreal, but it still stands beside them.


. . . In these poems about Emma he is rediscovering repressed sorrow and forgotten love. He is like an archaeologist uncovering objects that have not been seen for many decades, bringing them out into the light, examining them, some small pieces, some curious bones and broken bits, and some shining treasures. There is a rising excitement in the writing as of someone making discoveries. He has found the most perfect subject he has ever had.


Mark Cazalet was very enthusiastic about creating prints ( a combination of wood and linocuts) for our book, Green Blades, to reflect the ‘rediscovery of repressed sorrow and forgotten love’ but it is a long and painstaking task to cut wood and lino for twenty-two large images and the work was achieved alongside huge murals, stained and engraved glass commissions and painting trips to Israel and Palestine for a magnificent series bringing stories from the Bible into the modern world. At last ‘our’ book is on the press and Nicolas has his task of bringing the poems and images together in printings which will involve three colours for each page opening. It will be on characterful Italian white paper, 330x350mm - so large and almost square - and the inks are specially mixed by Cranfield Colours from natural pigments.


The images above are proofs of the blocks taken by the artist - to show Nicolas what they should look like!


See more of Mark Cazalet's varied and fascinating work here.

Glenys Cour

At last, the artist gets to sign!

For various reasons, mostly from other parts of our lives, Black Marigolds has taken much longer than expected to be completed. The final printing has now been done and, with the signing of the final signature completed [we do that rather than wait until the book is bound when we would have to approach artist and/or author with a lorry-load of books!] the whole lot can go off to the binder.

The binding is rather unusual and involves two printed items. First there is this piece of patterned paper


and then there is this piece of printing - in silver on black.



How these fit together will have to remain your guess . . . until the binders have done the work and I can photograph the finished book!


Very personal postscript -
The signing and the photography took place in Swansea this very afternoon. Glenys, superb artist and radiantly wonderful person, gave us a glorious tea and then settled down to the signing. Afterwards she let us see her latest work, a series of largish canvases of towering beauty - fascinatingly poised between land/sea and skyscape and abstraction. I cannot wait to see them together on the walls of a gallery . . . and I hope that at least one may end up on our walls!

Finally, I admitted something that I have sought to keep from all the rest of my friends - such is my dislike of 'special days'.

"Glenys, as we leave I shall need a special hug and a bit of a blessing from you for tomorrow I am to be 70."

Glenys who, despite the evidence of these two photographs, left that age behind an unimaginable amount of time ago, took me in her arms and said , "Oh, my little lad!"

'Duke Bluebeard's Castle' comes to Wales' Millennium Centre

It will not have escaped the notice of those who follow the doings and interests of the two of us at The Old Stile Press that music is hugely important to our lives and, indeed, has often provided the starting point for our books. Peter Grimes and Abraham and Isaac are obvious examples.

It is not often, however, that one of our publications comes to visit us, as it were, in quite such an exciting way as this! During this season of Welsh National Opera (undoubtedly one of Wales’ greatest treasures), you will be able to see performances, at the stunning Millennium Centre in Cardiff and later at the Birmingham Hippodrome of Bela Bartok’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, conducted by Carlo Rizzi. The production is in conjunction with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and is to be sung in Hungarian.




A number of years ago however, John Lloyd Davies, Head of Opera Development at the ROH, had made an English version of the libretto for performances of the opera and it is this version that we used for Susan Adams’ sensational book. Her images, combining woodcut with computer generated imagery, make chilling scenes of the mysterious castle and its 'prisoners', to match the complexity of emotion and psychological shifts which are central to the opera.




The story is of the young bride, Judith, brought to her new home by the Duke. She longs to fling open windows, to let sunlight flood into her castle but gradually she has to face the truth of what may have happened here - the truth of the destroyed lives of the three previous wives. Her curiosity drives her to open the seven locked doors and it becomes clear that Bluebeard and Judith face spiritual loneliness in the face of love.

The book is hardly a libretto that you might have in your pocket as you arrive at the opera house but it does match the power of one of great operas of the twentieth century and creates a ‘maze of the imagination which allow one to take on the fearful realities’.

Click here to see the full description of our book.




Copies of the book are here at the Press - seats at the opera house are not ours to sell but contact them if you want to see the opera.

Friday 25, Wednesday 30 May and Saturday 2 June 8pm
Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff
08700 40 2000 wmc.org.uk

Tuesday 19 June 8pm
Birmingham Hippodrome

Ralph Kiggell flies in from Bangkok!

Leading the Cranes Home has been one of the most successful and best admired of our books in the past few years. Click on the title to see its full description and slide-show!



The creator of its fantastic colour woodcuts, Ralph Kiggell, has just been here, having managed to pop down to Wales during one of his infrequent trips back to the UK from his home in Thailand.


We did persuade him to unroll for us the pile of prints that he had brought to show to one or other of his galleries. Some of the prints we had seen before but some were new to us. These great sheets of Japanese paper, apparently flimsy but actually remarkably strong, are impressive enough in their own right but, when the baren in Ralph's hand has finished the long and laborious process of printing one block after another, the result, glowing with rich colours, is truly magnificent.



These few photos are merely to give an impression of the excitement as the prints were unrolled! If you want to concentrate on looking at these prints and many others, you can visit Ralph's website from here.




Those who have had an opportunity to handle and examine thoroughly Leading the Cranes Home, will not be surprised to hear that, sitting this morning in glorious Mayday sun and heat (still a bit chilly for Ralph!), we began to weave plans for a second venture together . . .

. . . and that is all I'm saying at the moment!

How I wish this book was one of ours! . . . 4

This book, being a straightforward trade children's book is a different thing completely from the special and wonderful books I have included before in this mini-series but anyone who has read our Bibliography or heard us speak will know much I love it and how strongly it influenced my decades as a book builder.



I see that it was published in the year I was born and I was given my copy quite soon afterwards. It was certainly a book that was read to me so that my eyes and my imagination were able to range freely across the landscapes on these pages and how much I loved doing that. I was captivated by the warmth and humour of the black and white drawings but I suppose it must have been unconsciously that I so valued the great areas of white space within them which added so much to their power rather than the reverse.

I was always especially fascinated by the great "O" on the initial page. I can vividly remember, without being able to explain it, my childish delight and love of this great sculptural shape which seemed to stand both as part of the line of text but also as part of the landscape - so drawing them together, I suppose.



This is not the place to recount the story in detail. If you have come across Ferdinand, you will know it off by heart and, if you have not, I can only hope that you can find a copy for yourselves. Suffice to say that Ferdinand is a little bull in Spain. In his field there are other child and adolescent bulls who love to rag around and fight each other and dream of being chosen for the bull-fight in Madrid. Ferdinand did not have any desire for this sort of behaviour but spent his time sitting under his favourite cork tree 'just smelling the flowers'.

At a very early age I realized that I WAS Ferdinand . . . going off by myself rather than rushing round with the others! That was the other reason for my love of this book but, for the moment I would just like to offer you some more of these incomparable drawings.



When the talent scouts arrive, Ferdinand goes off to his tree but unfortunately sits on a bee and is stung into great snortings and leapings about. The talent scouts immediately think he is the strongest and fiercest bull of all . . .



In the bull-ring, all the matadors and the picadors and so on march proudly round . . .





. . . and he ends up happily under his cork tree! Bliss.

I end with the wonderful endpaper drawing. This is the Spain that I have always looked for and how we laughed every time at the linguistic naughtiness of 'hot dogos' and 'chocolate baros'!

A Flowery Mead

Our mower is bust at the moment!

I hate to imagine how Autumn will bring sharp brambles to our upstairs windows as we two Sleeping Beauties are finally lost to the jungle all around . . . but, for the moment, the Spring has great charms to offer. Lady's Smock and Celandine, Bugle and Violet . . . a veritable flowery mead.


What a lovely phrase that is! It makes me think of Shakespeare and Spenser, the mediaeval garden . . . either the real thing or Pre-Raphaelite versions.

But, in the context of the present day, I immediately think of the paintings of our friend Clive Hicks-Jenkins. So often, if a bit of ground has to be depicted in one of his rich works, it is elevated to the status of a delicious 'flowery mead'. Here is one - a tiny detail from a large painting in acrylics and I happen to know that he is working on another at this very moment, in an even larger work which will be the centrepiece of his exhibition, later this year, at MOMA, Wales. I will be sure to give further details of this nearer the time.


For the moment, though, I would advocate a visit HERE, in a hunt for more flowery meads and so much more. The site is a lavish presentation of Clive's paintings and drawings . . . together, of course, with the books he has made with us!

Nd'A and God

We were unable to get to this launch, sadly, but I take this opportunity to urge anyone who has not yet seen this wonderful book to mend the situation asap!

Natalie d'Arbeloff's enterprise with The Old Stile Press has been mentioned on this Blog, together with images of the amazing one-off artist's book we had from her some time ago, but all that is just a drop in the ocean!

An exploratory trip to her website (see link) will undoubtably lead to regular return visits BUT, for now, I urge you to find out more about the entirely life-enhancing "The God Interviews" by going HERE.

Only there for a moment . . .

This photograph happens to bring together a number of things I like . . . especially paintings and photography and light and theatricality and recognizing that I must rush to do something (eg get my camera) NOW, or a moment will be lost for ever.

A painting by Michael Ayrton (a study for an enormous mural for the Festival of Britain) sat on an easel by the window. A glance showed that light was pouring in and the window itself was reflected in the picture glass together with part of a sculpture, by complete chance also by Michael Ayrton, which was on the other side of the room.

Happily, I think, I DID run for my camera!

An image for Good Friday

We have not been church-goers for many years but early memories are very powerful and the richness of Christian iconography, architecture, church music, painting and so on is extremely powerful. Of the piles of CDs in my printing office (see earlier photograph!) a high proportion are of church music.

Many years ago I found this piece of wood and hung it on an (outside) wall of our house - thinking that it looked quite like a dancer, or an angel or even . . .





As the years of rain and wind have lashed around in the courtyard in which the piece of wood hangs, it seems to have been changed, has become more stark. The soft tissues of the wood have washed or rotted away leaving the hard remains. It was always a lovely object but the passage of time has refined it, I feel, into something very special.

Welcome Blessed Spring.

As I was clicking the buttons for the greeting below, I suddenly remembered a similar year whose winter had (for me) not been up to much and the fact that I had produced the above as an act of rejoicement . . . using some wood letter that I had unearthed and as a first experiment of having more than one colour on the roller at the same time.

Happy Arrival of Spring!

. . . to anyone on this side of the globe, and commiserations to anyone who isn't!

Mozart and the Stone

Click to Play

This is a first experiment - after ages of frustration as described below!

If you go here, you can see it full-screen which is much better but you have to let it load sufficiently otherwise it stutters and breaks up.

With grateful acknowledgement and utter awe to Mozart.

Dedicated to Natalie d'Arbeloff, without whom . . .

Well, that was such fun . . . I must do another one!

April Moon's Fool

Someone told me that, if you cut a round hole in some blue-black material, draw a bit of a horizon line on it and put it up behind something in the foreground like a tree, it would photograph just like a full-moon coming up. Well, I tried and tried and got nowhere fast so . . . I went outside and photographed the real thing!

Sorry but that is the best I can do! We were so self-absorbed that neither of us even realized it was April 1st yesterday until the evening!

I have been indulging in much displacement activity recently. What I am avoiding is irrelevant. More to the point is that most of the time is going, going, gone at the computer . . . where I am seriously trying to come to terms with such undiscovered lands as iDVD, iMovie and suchlike and HOW on earth can one uplift an utterly brilliant and amazing little slideshow to blip.tv (or anywhere else, come to that) so that YOU can see it!! I sat in the sun all this morning reading manuals and STILL cannot get the thing to work!

And I just know you are all quite unable to settle to your lives for waiting for it . . .

Sorry, again. This joke has gone far enough as well . . .

It's just the fact that we discover that this BLOG is already being read IN FOUR CONTINENTS. It has rather gone to my head . . .

Anyone out there in Africa??