. . .  when I am drawn to express my awe and ecstasy at the beauties yet again showered upon us by Nature - each year more wonderful than the last - and my joy that there are at least some who still feel that these gifts are the sufficient and perfect reward for...

The London International Antiquarian Book Fair may not sound like the obvious place to find contemporary books but in the National Hall at Olympia this year there is a room devoted to what is described as ALSO exhibitors - there you will find Old Stile Press books and...

This is not, as you might think, one of the deeper dungeons in the Tower of London. It is our woodshed . . . the scene of one of the most important labours of our lives, keeping warm. This morning I had the great pleasure of seeing and reading an exquisite...

    Anyone who makes a habit of visiting the Artlog of Clive Hicks-Jenkins (and who on earth does not) will know that the wizard of Ty Isaf has of late been giving lots of little green men a run for their money. Walking across the garden this morning I noticed...

It is difficult to imagine life a hundred years ago when my father, Sir Edward Pickering, was born on this day.  I don't possess any photographs of him then but the television has been filled with programmes about Titanic and the people aboard in 1912 and the...

This week we have reached that exciting point in the birth of a book when all its component parts are assembled and we can actually hold a bound copy in our hands. A storyteller, a photographer and the designer/printer came together to create The Swimmer. Sarah Butler...

We seem to have been focussing on other aspects of our lives of late and our blogs have been very erratic. One of our friends made a new year resolution to put something on his blog each day and has kept to it faithfully! We are not going that far in our promises but...

Intrepid travellers most people know that we are not but we have just returned from a real, live HOLIDAY away from home! We spent all of two nights in a hotel of great antiquity and charm in Tewkesbury which is in one of the counties adjacent to ours and involved less...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

. . . 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...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...