Authors Electric

Many years ago, at the height of Britain’s football hooliganism problems, I came across a delicious comedy sketch on BBC Radio 4 which went something like this:  Policeman : I'm arresting you for affray leading to grievous bodily harm, with intention to commit. Do you have anything to say?  Lout : Yeah, well, it were like this. Me and my mates was just leavin’ Waiting for Godot at the Prince Edward theatre, like, when these guys come up to us and start rantin’ and swearin’ that Beckett’s rubbish, everyone knows that, not a patch on Chekhov whose Three Sisters could wipe the floor wiv us, yeah, and our muvvers too. Well, that crossed a line that did, I’m not takin’ that lyin’ down. So yes, officer, I did clock ‘im one but there’s provocation, see.  Laugh-out loud comedy, ah those were the days.  Having the temerity to issue a challenge.  Photo by Daisa TJ: https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-holding-sword-3408420/ Anyway, this popped into my mind because recently...

Wood Engravings by Peter Holland I may have mentioned before .... that while my books are published in the modern, mass-produced way, my husband goes to the opposite extreme, commissioning fine, hand printed and bound books using traditional letterpress. Two years ago he, together with wood engraver Pete Lawrence, brought out 2020 Vision: Nineteen wood engravers, one collector and the artists who inspired them , beautifully printed by Pat Randle at Nomad Letterpress and handbound by Roger Grech . Produced to celebrate the centenary of The Society of Wood Engravers , all that was needed was the biennial Oxford Fine Press Book Fair to launch it in March 2020, and ….  But you know the rest. The pandemic happened and the Book Fair didn’t. Not in March, nor in November 2020. 2021 came and went, with not a rustle of antique page or handmade paper in Oxford (oh, except for business as usual in the Bodleian, of course). In November 2021 a flutter went through the book world as Ludlow Boo...