How I Got Involved in Letterpress Printing:
I was given an Adana HS2 in 1963 when my uncle died. He had been a Boy Scout in England from the 1930s and apparently they printed
tickets for various functions. He found the Adana very useful and when I got it, one of the chases was still set for a ticket for
a Beetle Drive. I was still at Medical School but my introduction to printing was through John Ryder's book Printing for Pleasure.
I managed to print the odd item such as invitations for parties. I got wise advice from a commercial printer who also operated a hobby
press. He advised that I only print things that are worth the effort of hand setting. Over the years I have taught myself the basics
of typography, type setting and printing and now appreciate and value letterpress.
We travelled to New Zealand in 1966 and the press
came in a tea chest. I gradually acquired small quantities of new type and yearned fro a bigger press. In 1970 I bought a new Adana
85 and operated it in Tanzania from 1971 to 1974. We returned to New Zealand and I got a Cropper treadle and so had the ability to
print a larger type area that the 85 but I was unhappy with the quality of in king and impression I could get from a very worn old
press. About 1985 I found a Vandercook No. 4 minus is inking mechanism and rollers. I had been influenced by Lewis Allen's Printing
with the Handpress and so took to hand inking and exploring the larger format. In 1994 I bought a Korrex Proof Press when the last
typesetter in New Zealand closed and this has become my main press. In 2003, I was invited to be Printer in Residence at the
Wai-te-Ata in Wellington to design and print the cover for a collection of verse. In 2004 I was Printer in residence in the Bibliography
Room of the University of Otago and together with an artist-print maker produced a hand printed edition of Faces in the Water, a poem
by Brian Turner, then Poet Laureate and recently we completed an edition of a previously unpublished poem by New Zealand writer, the
late J K Baxter.
Presses & Equipment: Adana 85, Vandercook No 4 (on loan to University of Otago Library) and Korrex Stuttgart
Press Monotype Bembo in sizes 18 to 36 point and Garamond in sizes 10 point to 24 point. Caslon (from Stephenson Blake Foundry) in
sizes 10 point to 30 point. Several display faces as well as wood type.
Work History: Currently Public Health Medicine
specialist (Medical Officer of Health for Otago / Southland) and Clinical Senior Lecturer at Dunedin School of Medicine (University
of Otago). Regular contributions to Small Printing (UK) and Vinculum (NZ) as well as It's a Small World, Various small publications
listed in Private Press Publications (Private Libraries Association, London), Annual Christmas cards for family and friends
Education:
University of Edinburgh Medical School
Group Memberships, if any: British Printing Society and Publishing Group, Association of Handcraft
Printers (New Zealand)
