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.

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.

LibraryPress Legacy
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:

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.

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.

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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.

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.

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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.

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.

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.

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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.

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.

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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.

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.

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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.

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.

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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.

Or read the Arabic version:

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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.

August’s issue (no. 23), Soho Memoirs : Recollections of Geo.Benford & O’Shea by Alf & Nance Wood is the second choice from our collaboration with The Museum of Soho. It contains a delightful transcript of a 1986 oral history interview by Bryan Burrough (one of the founders of the Soho Society and The Museum of Soho) with Alf and Nance Wood who both worked at the watchmaker Geo. Benford & O’Shea in Dean Street from the 1920s to the 1970s.

September’s issue, Canyon Flow by Joyce Majiski & Zea Morvitz is a collaboration between the artists Joyce Majiski (Canada) and Zea Morvitz (USA) which was inspired by the Miles Canyon near Whitehorse, Yukon Territory in Canada. Joyce and Zea produced two gorgeously illustrated scrolls, details of which make up the book.

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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.

July’s issue, Sprouting Bonds : how growing our food connects us to places, land, families and culture is a handbook of results from the Grown Edible and Meaningful project, based in Leeds in 2013. A collaboration between universities and local community organisations, it explored the meaning of growing food and how it connects people to their environment, communities and to the wider world. The books combines social observations with recipes, personal stories, poetry, growing tips and reflections.

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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.

June’s issue, Pride of the Moor, is a contemporary folksong created by musician Jim Causley and artist Simon Pope as part of Simon’s project “A Song, A Dance & A New Stannary Parliament”. The project was commissioned by Spacex gallery in Exeter and explored the history and local significance of tin mining on Dartmoor as a way of developing new understandings of the landscape itself.

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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.

May’s issue, Recollections by Harold Lun, is the first fruit of our collaboration with The Museum of Soho – drawing on material from their archives. This book is a facsimile of letters and photographs in the archive sent by Harold Lun and describing his childhood growing up in Soho during the 1920s, 30s and 40s. It is a moving story made more so by reading it in the hand of the writer himself, not just as printed text on a page.

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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.

April’s issue (a bit delayed due to Easter and school holidays), Metalanliguistica, is a departure from recent selections – a book of experimental literature by Nick Norton. In his own words, “Metalanliguistica is the investigation as an invention, the dream made as documentary; a work of nights and days hung on the Fibonacci Scale, it is teetering on the edge of paradise while wading through bo diddley hell, and it is therefore humorous in parts.”

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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.

On November 23rd 1644, 369 years ago, John Milton published his Areopagitica, a speech to the English Parliament calling for unlicensed printing and freedom of expression. Reading it now, in the light of the unfolding Snowden revelations, it is all the more poignant in the face of massive state surveillance of private communications. How far will this act to drive freedom of expression underground? How much will people begin to constrain their thoughts and feelings against an unknowable and invisible censor? Re-reading the Areopagitica now is a reminder that freedom is not a given, but something that each generation must continue to strive for.

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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.

The three books will be distributed via the Periodical starting in May 2014 – subscribe now to get your copies as well as other treats through your letterbox each month. We will have copies too at a special event at the House of St Barnabas in May organised by MoSoho.

From Hazem’s introduction, “Three dots. Three issues. The one you’re reading has been a long, a long time coming. It took a while to find these voices; to find the right words. Pardon the ellipsis”

Whisker is a pocket-sized literary magazine that showcases new poetry and short fiction, often from previously unpublished contributors. It has a tactile sense of merit: instinctive, curious, unconcerned with fixed styles, rigorous entry criteria, or authors’ backstories. Just fresh, fine writing that invokes feeling; that strikes a nerve.

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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.

A few months ago I met accessibility and sensory design consultant, Alastair Somerville, who was in town to demonstrate using simple and cheap visualisation tools such as the 3Doodler pen. Over coffee we chatted about 3D printing, data manifestation and some of the tools and techniques we’ve each developed. Alastair showed me a material he has been using in wayfinding for people with visual impairments: Zy.chem swell paper, a specially treated material where the black ink ‘swells’ up to create a textured surface. Alastair had been using it to make simple tactile maps and for braille. We both then became excited about the possibilities of using the Zy.chem paper with bookleteer to create simple and low-cost braille and textured publications.

Very soon afterwards Alastair experimented with a wayfunding guide for a project he was working on for the University of Sussex’s new library, The Keep. He sent me a copy printed on the Zy.chem paper which confirmed for me that this was a material with hugely exciting creative potential. I then asked Alastair if he would consider making something special for the Periodical so we could demonstrate this to others. The result is this beautiful guide to Dal Riata, an ancient Scottish kingdom in Kilmartin Glen, Argyll which has some of the most extensive neolithic earthworks and structures in the UK.

Alastair’s book uses the zy.chem paper to impart the texture of some of the neolithic stone features of Dal Riata as well as some maps of significant sites. In addition to the tactile paper, one sheet is also printed on tracing paper, overlaying the bigger map of Scotland and Northern Ireland onto a tactile map of the kingdom of Dal Riata itself, and then providing a ‘mist’ overlaying a section about the disappearance of the kingdom during the Viking raids of the early Middle Ages. At once informative and poetic, it holds its own sense of magic and mystery within its very textures.

Alastair has posted a Vine video:

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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.
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.

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PERIODICAL HERE
Treat yourself to something lovely – an enigmatic, eclectic package arriving through your letterbox each month. Get inspired to create and share your own publications on bookleteer to take part too.