This mouth-watering tour of private presses began in London where you’ll stay in the historic Bloomsbury section just near the British Museum.

Along the way there will be demonstrations of various printing techniques on private presses, visits to specialist libraries, and a look at some exceptional bookbinding.

We begin at the St Bride Foundation just off of Fleet Street which is the museum of the history of printing with presses and materials that go back to the earliest days of printing, the mid-15th Century.

And we will visit several working presses among them the Hand and Eye in Shadwell where they will demonstrate the collaboration that goes into the production of several of their books.

From London there are a number of day trips scheduled, one to Ditchling where you can see Eric Gill’s press as well as many of the books of the St. Dominic Press, begun by Douglas Pepler. There is also work by the wonderful calligrapher Edward Johnston. Another day trip will take us to Cambridge.

We will spend several days in the Cotswolds and one of the more exciting visits while there is to the exceptional private collection of Sir Paul Getty at Wormsley. His collection was put together on the theme of “the art of the book”.

After several days visiting Kelmscott Manor, the Emery Walker Archive in Cheltenham and a day in Oxford, we will return to London where there are visits to several rare book dealers – and our Farewell Dinner.

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