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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

. . . 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...

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...

A very happy Christmas to all our friends!

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!

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...

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...

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!

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...

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...

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...

. . . 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...

. . . 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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...