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Endings and Beginnings

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Last Autumn, after 3 years and much fun selecting and sending out fine publications made and shared on bookleteer, I decided to end the Periodical’s monthly service. There were a number of reasons – some practical and financial – but I felt that as a project it had achieved as much as it could in its existing form. At its height there were over 80 subscribers across the world. Something like 60 different books were distributed during the 3 years, and there will be a few more that will be sent out to the last subscribers later this year as part of the LibraryPress Legacy project.

Since many subscribers were keen for the project to continue I will be considering options – the most likely being a once yearly round-up. If you’re interested in subscribing to this, please leave a comment on this post to let me know.

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My work with anthropologist James Leach and the villagers of Reite in Papua New Guinea has defined much of my recent work with bookleteer and is shaping the trajectory of development in which it is heading. You can read about our fieldwork in PNG, about the TKRN project and the TKRN Toolkit or explore the lovely handmade books created by the community on the dedicated website I created for them. We are returning to Reite in April and May this year to do further work, and to expand the project into some neighbouring villages. We have also been invited to develop a parallel project with indigenous fieldworkers in the neighbouring island nation of Vanuatu. Later in 2016 we hope to facilitate some of the villagers from Reite to transfer their skills and knowledge of using the TKRN Toolkit to local people in Vanuatu.


This past year I have also been helping (in a small way) Grace Tillyard to develop her amazing Breast Cancer awareness and engagement programme for women in Haiti. The project is hosted by Project Medishare‘s Womens Health Centre in Port-au-Prince and recently received $60,000 in funding. Grace is currently co-developing with local people a new kind of Patient Notebook using bookleteer to help communicate more about the condition and the medical treatments available, as well as to allow people to record their own medical information in a dedicated book of their own. We hope to have a prototype ready this Spring for testing by the community.

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I have also been collaborating with Peter Baxter of Camden’s Library Service to extend and continue the work of introducing self-publishing using bookleteer into London’s libraries that was initiated in 2014 and 2015 through the LibraryPress project. Last week we held a professional development workshop for Librarians from Camden, Hackney, Brent, Hounslow and Harrow. Over the next few months the aim is for these librarians to use bookleteer to create publications with library users as part of the many events to promote reading and literacy that take place. We shall be selecting some of these to be printed and distributed as part of a special issue of the Periodical.

Lastly, I wish to share a stunning new book, Northern Musings, created by the Canadian artist and printmaker, Joyce Majiski:

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Magna Carta 800 Sets

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June 2015 was the 800th anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta – considered by many to be the keystone to Britain’s constitutional and democracy. To celebrate and see the impact this document has had, over six months in 2015 I published a series of 6 books, each containing several texts from across the centuries that have been inspired by the Magna Carta. From the English Civil War era, to the French and American Bills of Rights in the late 1700s, the Chartists of the 1830s though to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Charter88 and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union of 2000. The final book in series contains Henry I’s Charter of Liberties (1100) on which the Magna Carta itself is based, the original 1215 Magna Carta and the Charter of the Forests of 1217.

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What the series shows is a lineage stretching back to Saxon times of the struggle to assert and protect the inherent rights and dignities of ordinary people against the attempts by the wealthy and powerful to control and corral resources, assets and power for themselves, at the expense of everyone else.

Originally distributed to subscribers of the Periodical there are 35 sets remaining, each of which has been bound together with red satin ribbon in a special edition.
Each set costs £15 plus postage and packing: buy your’s here.

View the whole collection here – free to read online or download, print out and make up yourself.

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the Periodical issue 33

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June’s issue (no. 33) contains the final book in my series celebrating the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta. The culmination of this series contains the three foundations on which much of Britain’s constitutional fabric rests: Henry I’s Charter of Liberties which restored many of the ancient rights from the Saxon period, which had been usurped by his father and tyrannical brother William Rufus.
This provided much of the basis of the Magna Carta itself, issued by John at the behest of 25 English barons. Later versions issued by his son and grandson extended its protections to all freemen, not just the barons named in the original. Parts remain in statute even until today. Often overlooked, but much more significant for ordinary people, the Charter of the Forest was issued in 1217 by John’s son, Henry III (or rather, by his regent William Marshall). It reestablished the right to forage for food, collect firewood, graze animals in lands deemed Royal Forest. It remained in statute until repealed and replaced by the 1971 Wild Creatures and Forest Laws Act. As the book was being typeset the newly elected Tory government announced plans to replace the 1998 Human Rights Act with a new British Bill of Rights. Quite what this means remains to be seen.

If you’d like a complete set, we have a small limited edition available to buy here.

*** SUBSCRIBE TO THE PERIODICAL HERE ***
Like what you see here? Then treat yourself to something lovely – an enigmatic, eclectic package arriving through your letterbox each month. Or buy a gift subscription for someone special. Get inspired to create and share your own publications on bookleteer to take part too – each month I select something delightful and inspiring from the publications which are made and shared on bookleteer.

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the Periodical issue 32

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May’s issue (no. 32) contains the penultimate book in my series celebrating the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta. Thomas Paine’s pamphlets Common Sense and Agrarian Justice are part of his remarkable legacy of revolutionary, communitarian ideas. Reviled in his own day, the ideas contained in these texts such as the pension and basic income are as relevant today as they were radical then. Challenging both hereditary privilege to govern and ownership of land as pernicious perversions of natural law, Paine calls for systems of amelioration (rather than confiscation) to be established to recompense those born outside of privilege. His is a radical, yet nonviolent call for a revolution that seeks to benefit all, regardless of the station they were born to. It seems fitting then to place alongside them the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which I believe Paine would have approved of. A landmark achievement and a direct descendant of Magna Carta, it is part of the Post War Settlement which established in law in many countries, the inherent rights of individual human beings. As we grapple with the erosion of the Welfare State and national sovereignty in favour of corporations, the global rise in inequality, religious intolerance, state surveillance, suspension of civil liberties and other egregious acts, we do well to hold it dear, and fast.

*** SUBSCRIBE TO THE PERIODICAL HERE ***
Like what you see here? Then treat yourself to something lovely – an enigmatic, eclectic package arriving through your letterbox each month. Or buy a gift subscription for someone special. Get inspired to create and share your own publications on bookleteer to take part too – each month I select something delightful and inspiring from the publications which are made and shared on bookleteer.

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the Periodical issues 30 & 31

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Back after a field trip to Papua New Guinea Bookleteering with a traditional indigenous community in the jungle, March and April’s issues of the Periodical comprise two more books in the Magna Carta series and another Librarypress book.

Issue 30’s The True Leveller’s Standards Advanced ((1649) & the Charter of the Fundamental Rights of the European Union (2000) contains two key documents that set out the basis for a new social contract, one written (but not applied) in the mid 17th Century, the other now part of the basis of European citizenhood.

Issue 31’s The Petition of Right (1628), Grand Remonstrance (1641) & Charter88 (1988) the fourth in my Magna Carta series, juxtaposes two 17th Century texts challenging the power of the king up to the eve of Civil War, with a near contemporary text highlighting the deficiency of Britain’s democracy still lacking a written constitution.

Also included in issue 31 is Poets from the Horizon: Scrapbook of Words containing young people’s creative writing generated at the New Horizons Youth Centre with support from Camden Libraries and Better World Books.

*** SUBSCRIBE TO THE PERIODICAL HERE ***
Like what you see here? Then treat yourself to something lovely – an enigmatic, eclectic package arriving through your letterbox each month. Or buy a gift subscription for someone special. Get inspired to create and share your own publications on bookleteer to take part too – each month I select something delightful and inspiring from the publications which are made and shared on bookleteer.

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the Periodical issue 29

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February’s issue (number 29) contains two books : the second book in my series of texts inspired by Magna Carta featuring the 1688 Bill of Rights + the 1776 Declaration of Independence and the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man. These three key documents trace back to and build on the Charter’s legacy and were all to prove fundamental to the emerging democracies of Britain, the USA and France.

The other books is another in our LibraryPress editions : Heston Poems by the Heston Creative Writing Group at Heston Library, part of Hounslow Libraries. Poems by young people inspired by JK Rowling’s Harry Potter, including QR codes linking to audio recordings of the poems being read by their authors.

*** SUBSCRIBE TO THE PERIODICAL HERE ***
Like what you see here? Then treat yourself to something lovely – an enigmatic, eclectic package arriving through your letterbox each month. Or buy a gift subscription for someone special. Get inspired to create and share your own publications on bookleteer to take part too – each month I select something delightful and inspiring from the publications which are made and shared on bookleteer.

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the Periodical issue 28

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Our first issue of 2015 (number 28) has two books, one from a new series I am putting together over the next six months to celebrate the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta, and another in our series of Librarypress books:

The Agreement of Free People of England (1649) & The People’s Charter (1838) juxtaposes two radical texts from key moments of unrest in Britain, the English Civil Wars and the Chartists Movement. Rejected by the elites of their own times, these texts nonetheless are foundations of modern democracy and fair society, inspiring and influencing others down the centuries.
Subscribe now to collect all 6 books (January to June 2015).

Poets from the Horizon by Camden Libraries & New Horizons Youth Centre is A book of poems by young people who have worked with Peter Baxter & Rosie Knight at the New Horizon Youth Centre to find and share their voices.

*** SUBSCRIBE TO THE PERIODICAL HERE ***
Like what you see here? Then treat yourself to something lovely – an enigmatic, eclectic package arriving through your letterbox each month. Or buy a gift subscription for someone special. Get inspired to create and share your own publications on bookleteer to take part too – each month I select something delightful and inspiring from the publications which are made and shared on bookleteer.

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the Periodical issue 27

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December’s issue (number 27) again contains two books, both of which emerged from our work on the Librarypress project this year:

Hackney Rebel is a gorgeous book of prints created by Hackney artist Dawes Gray. The book was begun at one of the Librarypress Pop Up Publishing workshops held in May 2014 with no prior experience of making books. Dawes’ prints transpose Tony Hancock’s character from his film, The Rebel, from Paris to Hackney in 2012.

The Day the War Stopped… for a Football Match by Islington Library & Heritage Services
The accompanying book is another LibraryPress book resulting from the Masterclass for library professionals held in September. It documents an engagement project with parents and children describing and commemorating the events of the Christmas Day 1914 truce.

*** SUBSCRIBE TO THE PERIODICAL HERE ***
Like what you see here? Then treat yourself to something lovely – an enigmatic, eclectic package arriving through your letterbox each month. Or buy a gift subscription for someone special.
Get inspired to create and share your own publications on bookleteer to take part too – each month I select something delightful and inspiring from the publications which are made and shared on bookleteer.

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the Periodical issue 26

November’s issue (number 26) contains two books, both of which are products of collaborations:

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A London Childhood 1926-1939 by Henry Long is the third of our collaborations with The Museum of Soho. It is a moving account of growing up in relative poverty in Soho in the 1920s and 30s, ending with the mass evacuation of children as World War Two began.

Also included is Lewisham People’s Patchwork by Lewisham Library and Information Service, the first book in our collaboration with the LibraryPress project, and the first of the books created as a result of the bookleteer Masterclass run in September. It describes a patchwork storytelling project run by the community engagement team at Deptford Lounge this year.

*** SUBSCRIBE TO THE PERIODICAL HERE ***
Like what you see here? Then treat yourself to something lovely – an enigmatic, eclectic package arriving through your letterbox each month. Or buy a gift subscription for someone special.
Get inspired to create and share your own publications on bookleteer to take part too – each month I select something delightful and inspiring from the publications which are made and shared on bookleteer.

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the Periodical issue 25

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October’s issue (number 25), Excavations is the Meroitic Cemetery of Dangeil, Sudan by Mahmoud Suliman Bashir and Julie Anderson is an account of the ongoing excavations of the ancient site in the Sudan by archaeologists from the Sudanese National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums and the British Museum. Published in both English and Arabic editions, it was written as a tool to help explain to the local Sudanese villagers and school children why archaeologists excavate cemeteries. This book follows on from an earlier (2010) book, Excavations in the Temple Precinct of Dangeil by Julie and Salah eldin Mohamed Ahmed.

Or read the Arabic version:

*** SUBSCRIBE TO THE PERIODICAL HERE ***
Like what you see here? Then treat yourself to something lovely – an enigmatic, eclectic package arriving through your letterbox each month. Or buy a gift subscription for someone special.
Get inspired to create and share your own publications on bookleteer to take part too – each month I select something delightful and inspiring from the publications which are made and shared on bookleteer.