Malcolm Graham is one of Oxford’s leading local historians. The one-time leader of guided historical walks through the city and author of various books, such as Hurry Along Please! Trams and Busses in Oxfordshire, Oxfordshire at School, and more recently, Oxford in the Great War, Malcolm has been recording the history of this great city for over four decades.
A note about the book itself
The book is an account of the evolution of Oxfordshire and its diverse communities since Neolithic times, documenting the landscapes, events and people that have shaped the Oxfordshire we know and love today.
It includes a mention, for example, of Mapledurham House, a historical account of which is soon to be printed here at Holywell;
“Increased building activity in the county in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries reflected growing prosperity. The new rich made wealthy by trade or association with the royal court built grand houses in the countryside. Sir Richard Blount, for instance, commissioned work on Mapledurham House, one of Oxfordshire’s largest Elizabethan houses, in about 1585.”
Printing and perfect binding
Perfect binding is a soft cover (paperback) bookbinding method. It involves glueing together the book pages and cover at the spine with a strong yet flexible thermal glue. The other three sides of the books are then trimmed to give them the ‘perfect’ edges from which the method derives its name.
Producing perfect bound books is a specialty of Holywell Press, so we're perfectly set up to produce this title.
The book was produced from complete artwork supplied in pdf format. We supplied three sets of system-checked digitally printed proofs, with one additional set for Malcolm. These were printed on our Xerox Versant 2100 high-resolution digital press. Following the proofing stage, the client supplied some individual corrected pages that were inserted into the master imposition by our prepress department.
The cover and text pages were printed on our offset litho press in 4 process colours throughout. The text pages were printed on Magno Satin 150gsm paper and the covers on Magno Satin 300gsm supplied by Premier Papers.
The covers were matt laminated and the text folded and gathered and perfect bound.
A final word from Diverse Oxfordshire: The County and its People
“Printing and publishing have always been closely linked with Oxford University, although Cheney’s printing business in Banbury was founded in 1767. Oxford University Press is the largest publisher in Oxfordshire but other major firms based here include Pearson Education (incorporating Heinemann), Elsevier Ltd, and Blackwell Publishing Ltd. As a result, Oxfordshire now has the largest concentration of printing and publishing businesses in the United Kingdom outside London.”
Holywell is immensely proud to be a part of the rich heritage of printing and publishing in Oxfordshire and to be counted alongside the likes of OUP, Pearson, and Blackwell’s.
If you need help with book design and printing, please call 01865 242098 or contact us using the button below.