Incline Press • 36 Bow Street Oldham OL1 1SJ England
Telephone (011-44) 0161 627 1966

A Paper Snowstorm:
Toni Savage & the Leicestershire Broadsheets

"The prodigality of it all astounded. In the world of folk song who has not benefited from his generosity and support? And the paper snowstorm -- booklets, posters, poems, wood engravings -- hand-coloured and lovingly despatched to the far corners. The mighty bearded chuckle was always ready with a broadsheet, or a fiver, a strong hand, or shrewd deflating jest. It's like confronting a tidal wave somehow, and such didstand shores of the world's heart he reaches"

(Duine Campbell quoting John Foreman, the Broadsheet King, on Toni Savage)

 
Ever since the early 1960s, the private presses of Leicester and the surrounding county have attracted particular attention for their remarkable booklet and broadsheet publications. At the centre of these exploits was Toni Savage -- one-time opera singer, folk-club enthusiast and printer extraordinary -- an active inspiration to many potential printer-publishers in the waning days of commercial letterpress.

This book is his story as told by several of his contemporaries: Alan Brignull, Duine Campbell, Rigby Graham & Cynthia Savage, with examples of printed work as the main illustrations. The book includes a complete listing of all the broadsheets issued with Leicestershire imprints to the end of 2004, compiled by Derek Deadman. Seventy-three pages, it is illustrated throughout with more than 35 facsimiles tipped onto the pages, as well as woodcuts, engravings, line drawings and photographs of the printers at work. In a folder within the book's slipcase are ten original Leicester Broadsheets: five Phoenix Broadsheets from the press of Toni Savage and at least one each from Alan Brignull, Derek Deadman, Hans van Eijk, Rigby Graham and Cynthia Savage.

Printed from metal type with a Victoria Platen Press, the text is set in Bembo on Magnani mould-made paper and bound in the workshop of Stephen Conway. An edition of 200, the book is 14 x 10 inches, printed paper over boards with a cloth spine and comes in a patterned paper and cloth slipcase. The price is £168 including post and packing.