Princetown Press

Dear Reader, This week I printed the cover for our upcoming chapbook. From experience, I know that printing handmade paper with a deckle edge does not always result in printing on a straight line. To ensure the covers are free-from wobble, I printed the words onto a sheet of paper which will then be pasted to the front of the book. The title is printed onto Five Seasons paper, which is a recycled, British-made paper. Designed for use by Five Seasons Press, this paper is lovely and smooth....

carnivorous sundews Dear Reader, It's been a while since we've talked about sundews, but the biting midges that have appeared in the back garden were a good reminder of how much I love them. These plants eat bugs (literally) and love the boggy soils of Dartmoor. A few weeks ago, we took a plant identification course with Southwest Peatland Partnership at the raised bog on Tor Royal Farm. A raised bog is a build up of peat that causes a hump in the landscape which is above the natural bowl or...

Dear Reader, At some point in the design of On the record, I decided to use ornaments between each of the sections. It was a lovely idea. I had the perfect ornament. Emphasis on The. Singular. It was all fine until I needed to print it twice on one page. As I'd already printed the first page (and put all the letters away to print the next page), I was in a bit of a pickle. Changing the decorative ornament would have meant re-setting and re-printing four pages. This would have been a...

Dear Reader, For the month of April, I'll be showing you behind the scenes in our letterpress workshop as we create On the Record: a short essay on the pollen record of Dartmoor. I'm covering all the steps from typesetting, printing, through to binding. If all goes well, your copy will be in the mail at the end of the month. I'm also running a special email series (free, of course!) about the history of trees on Dartmoor and the colour we get from them. Interested? Subscribe now! To my...

Dear Reader, And so it begins. The typesetting of our longest-yet piece. I've been sitting with it for weeks. Trying to make sure the words make sense, and that they're right. Reading and rereading not only the essay, but also the research papers I've referenced. I've asked more than a few kind souls to proofread it for me. And yet, once in the workshop, I sometimes question my decisions, abandon my script, and just put new words together as I'm composing. Sometimes it makes the passage...

Dear Reader, Have you got a favourite book? Not necessarily the topic, although that's important too, but the actual physical object. A book that you thought, "Yes, this is exactly how a book should be." Perhaps you even have a small collection of books that are differently perfect. (Please share pictures with me if you are in this lucky situation!) There were a few books we used as inspiration for the chapbook I'm putting together now. The first was Notes on Printing and Publishing Literary...

On the record; on the press Dear Reader, Tomorrow, everyone in the world will have twelve hours of daylight (plus or minus 20 minutes). Solstice has a much better marketing team and gets the attention for being the longest or the shortest. Being the -est is great; but the moment when we're all the same is a magical moment to celebrate. Give an extra wave and smile to your neighbour tomorrow. We're all in this together. Grab a cuppa, today's newsletter is a long one! New work for spring 2026...