Roderick Cave with George lll at the British Library

The Golden Cockerel Press is one of most important, productive English private presses in the history of fine printing. In 2002 Oak Knoll Press and the British Library co-published the first extensive study of the Golden Cockerel. Written by Roderick Cave, the book is based on interviews and the Press' widely-scattered archives.  Responsible in large part for a revival in wood-engraving, Golden Cockerel Press books published between 1920-1960 contain the work of  brilliant practitioners such as Robert Gibbings (who owned the Press throughout much of the 20s), Eric Gill, David Jones, Agnes Miller Parker, Eric Ravilious, and John Buckland-Wright.  The Press' literary achievement was also significant; it published original manuscripts by writers such as H.E. Bates, A.E. Coppard and T.E. Lawrence.

I met with Roderick Cave recently at the British Library to discuss the works and history of The Golden Cockerel Press. As with all episodes in our Publisher History Series, questions are asked primarily from the perspective of a book collector. Please listen here:

Richard Greene's Boxing the Compass recently won the Governor General's Award for English Poetry. 

Here's how the jury saw it:
"Richard Greene’s Boxing the Compass leaves us feeling unmoored, adrift across time and voice. The matchless long poem at its heart pulls us back to our always-moving selves, on an always-moving earth. We follow him in his offbeat but strangely familiar travels."

Here's my review of the book in the Globe and Mail .

Originally from St. John’s, Newfoundland, now living in Cobourg, Ontario, Richard is not only a poet, he's also a biographer, critic and professor of English at the University of Toronto. He edited Graham Greene: A Life in Letters (2007) and has just written a biography of British poet Edith Sitwell.  Boxing the Compass is his third collection of poetry. Please listen as we talk about it here: