Authors Electric

 As we near the end of the school holidays I’m wondering if summer scrapbooks are still a “thing”? I used to enjoy collecting tickets, stickers, tourist leaflets and other paraphernalia with my children to document the fun we had over the six weeks creating a permanent keepsake. A collage of summer scrap! Once or twice, there were competitions at school for the “best” scrapbook after the holidays, but as with most of these things it is impossible for all parents to compete especially with the families who jet off on lavish foreign holidays and generally have more disposable income for more exciting activities.  It’s not a level playing field when the only excitement you have to write about is … the local playing field! https://www.flickr.com/photos/w9ned/3883245679/ And yet making a scrapbook, as the name suggests, can be a very inexpensive activity. It is just a patchwork of ephemera. When I was a very small child, I had several scrapbooks which I filled with random pictu...

At the Ludlow Fine Press Book Fair, 6 - 7 November 2021 A couple of weeks ago, my husband and I did something we haven’t been able to do for nearly 4 years.  No, not paragliding. Or kitesurfing (as if). Or ringing doorbells and running away (run, at our age?) Something far more exciting.  We went to a Fine Press Book Fair.  There, I knew you’d be jealous.  Book lovers, letterpress printers, wood engravers, paper specialists, traditional binders and other craftsmen – all have been suffering withdrawal symptoms as a result of the sad but necessary cancellation of the biennial Oxford Fine Press Book Fair in March 2020. It will now be held on the weekend of 5 and 6 March 2022 – fingers crossed – but meanwhile lots of exhibitors were missing the chance to get together, and the clever people at Ludlow Book Binders came up with the idea of holding the first ever book fair at the Clive Pavilion, Ludlow Race Course, on 6 and 7 November 2021 . (Not a place you’d normally ex...