Author Archives: Patricia

Holy Writ

Great calligraphy exhibitions in superb venues don’t come around very often. The last one, in my very biased view, was the terrific Calligraphy Today exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum Museum in Cambridge which I co-curated with the Keeper of Manuscripts and Printed Books, Dr Stella Panayotova. This was an exhibition of selected pieces from the permanent collection of contemporary calligraphy that I put together for the museum. I was delighted to see that a piece from that collection was on display at the recent Holy Writ exhibition at Lichfield Cathedral. The artwork was Peter Halliday’s wonderful Burning Bush (right).

And Holy Writ was the latest great calligraphy exhibition in a superb venue – Lichfield Cathedral. The exhibition has now closed, but it was so fantastic that I thought it worthwhile putting up some of the images as a blogpost here. The hugely creative calligrapher Peter Halliday was the curator of this exhibition, and he brought together manuscripts and contemporary calligraphy from all three faiths based on Abraham – Islam, Jewish and Christian.

Professor Michelle Brown was part of the associated activities connected with the exhibition and gave one of her superb lectures on the Lichfield Psalter, and here she is with Peter with another of his exhibition artworks on the right.

Stephen Raw’s powerful artwork of the word ‘Abraham’ in its Western, Hebrew and Arabic scripts was used as the image for the exhibition. This picture of Stephen at the side of his work gives an indication of size.

Religious artworks from all three faiths were included, and, although very simple, this is a stunning piece by Mustafa Ja’far.

Mustafa (left on photo on the right) was at the exhibition on the same day as Professor Ewan Clayton MBE (right) – gifted calligrapher and Craft Skills Champion in 2013 – and another exhibitor in the exhibition.

Another striking piece was by Fouad Kouichi Honda, where strong calligraphy forms the decoration and the message.

Part of the St John’s Bible, master-minded by Donald Jackson, was also on display, showing that scribes and illuminators can create modern artworks based on historical techniques.

Wall Memorials in Bath Abbey

We live in a different era now, and for many of us, name and life dates, and perhaps that we were a mother, father, daughter, son etc would be all we would want on our memorial. Not so in the eighteenth century when ostentation was evident not only in dress, manners and fashion. Bath Abbey has a terrific set of wall plaques that show how pious, good natured and strong in adversity its’ citizens were at the time! Charles Symmonds shown on the right, was gentle in manner, high minded and disinterested (!). Charles was fond of retirement and literary pursuits, richly endowed with talents and learning but careless of worldly advancement. And if this wasn’t enough he was charitable, warm-hearted, sincere and fearless in the disclosure of his opinions (hmm, could this be a chink in his overall virtue, I wonder?). A real paragon of virtue surely.

However, he is not alone. Hannah Alleyne was ‘amiable for the many virtues she possessed’. She was patient, resigning herself to the divine will during a tedious and painful illness which she bore with great fortitude, and died aged 35 sincerely lamented as she was beloved.

Richard Ford died at the age of 67, but he too was a most worthy man being a vigilant magistrate, and affectionate husband and a tender father, a daily frequenter of public worship and a generous promoter of every good work.

Rebecca Bowen’s sister put up her memorial after she died at the age of 73 years. Rebecca had a lively faith while her ‘charities’ were liberal and unostentatious. Despite having a long and painful illness her friendships were warm and constant and her patience exemplary throughout her difficulties.

The memorial for William Meyler, who was a bookseller, a tradesman and the editor of a public newspaper, a magistrate and a member of the common council of Bath, notes that he was deservedly esteemed for his integrity of conduct and consistency of principle. His memory will also, it is written, be long cherished in the hearts of those who knew him best.

The words at the end of Anne Finch’s memorial are very telling – ‘the first real occasion of greif (sic) she gave her sorrowful mother was her death’. In life she was ‘an excellent person, well-natur’d, discreet, and vertuous most affectionately beloved by her relations and most justly esteemed by all that knew her.’ She also had an illness, during ‘the flower of her age’.

And lastly, ‘If polished manners, inflexible integrity, and the warmest benevolence of heart, form a character which claims the tear of surviving friendship, reflect, O Reader on the distress of conjugal affection, and pity the fond endeavour which in seeking to alleviate perpetuates its sorrows by inscribing this marble to the memory of Robert Sutton’.

National Schools Handwriting Competition

Four year-olds hand writing

Each year schools up and down the country focus on encouraging their pupils to write their best handwriting for the National Schools Handwriting Competition, run by SATIPS and sponsored by the Manuscript Pen Company. The huge advantage of this competition is that everyone in the school (up to the age of 13 for children) can enter for free, and that includes the teachers, caretakers, secretaries, teachers’ assistants – there is no selection of only few entries by schools – and it shows that handwriting is important no matter what your age.

Five year-olds handwriting

What the four-year-old prize-winners (above right – and in each case in this post, the winner is shown on the top and second and third prize-winners below) and the five year-olds (right) won’t fully appreciate is that, if they continue to write well, then they should not lose marks in exams as highlighted in an article in The Times in May. ‘Almost two-thirds of teachers said that they had marked down pupils because of illegible answers and three in ten reported a deterioration in children’s handwriting in the past five years.’ More to the point, children themselves (39%) were more worried about their handwriting in exams than not being able to remember things (37%).

Overall winner, Group A

With the increased concerns about how easy it is to cheat using a tablet or computer, it looks likely that examiners will emphasise the importance of handwritten answers more in the future. As educators, we are doing our children a disservice if we do not equip them with the skills they need to perform at their best in examination conditions. The well-developed cursive style of handwriting of the Overall Winner of Class A (seen on the right here) should have few problems about performing well.

Six year-olds handwriting

How can teachers and parents help their children to develop good handwriting. I posted Top Ten Tips for Children’s Handwriting on my website blog this year. It is not difficult to ensure that children develop a grip which will not cause them pain later in life from a very early age, particularly if and when they go on to sit 3-hour examinations.

Seven year-olds

Nor is it rocket science to help children develop that good grip by placing paper and books in the best position. So for neither should the paper be straight but slanted, and for right-handers, the top right-hand corner should be highest, and for left-handers the top left-hand corner should be highest (it is very easy to remember). This helps left-handers particularly to avoid developing an ‘over-the-top’ claw-like grip which causes strain on the wrist, forearm, shoulder and spine. If pen-hold is a problem, then triangular grips that slide over pens and pencils can be very helpful.

Eight year-olds

Ensuring that children do not have to reach up to write, nor hunch their bodies over a table are also essential. Both seating positions – stretching and hunching – may result in pain and poor posture which could cause problems later. No-one enjoys writing if their experience of it brings back memories of being uncomfortable or hurt. Standard issue chairs and tables are not the best for children of many different heights in a class from quite small to very tall – one having to stretch too much and the other having to bend over too much.

Nine-year-olds

And, of course, writing at a slope is far more preferable to on the flat, but I sense this is a lost cause nowadays! Those old-fashioned wooden desks with a sloping lid were far better for writing, especially when doing so at length.

Overall Winner Group B

Research has also shown that children who hand-write, rather than type, are better at composition and reading and also have better memories. The same research from Washington University also found that children ‘wrote’ more quickly when hand-writing their compositions than when ‘writing’ them on a computer, even for those who had learned to touch type. Many authors, too, find that handwriting allows ideas to flow more easily as the brain keeps up with the speed of the hand-writer. What better proof then to emphasise the importance of everyone learning to handwrite well and how much it helps children’s learning in so many other ways.

Ten year-olds

This year’s competition was as difficult to judge as previous ones, with many examples of excellent handwriting, which will surely stand all in good stead in future years. As always, the judges looked for well-formed letters. It is important when it is time for speeding up that the heights of ascenders are consistent with the letter ‘t’ usually being smaller than that of other ascenders but higher than the x-height, the body of the letters.

Eleven year-olds

Once letters are joined, the joins should be smooth and natural. Of course, not every letter in a word has to join, but where they do it should not look contrived.

Winner Group C

There are always some difficult letter combinations, and the ‘fl’ and ‘bl’ combinations in this Overall Group C winning entry is an example of those combinations being well resolved.

Twelve year-olds

There should also be a consistency of slant. For some people their natural ‘ductus’ results in letters that slant forwards, or the letters are upright, or backwards. Consistency is more important than the direction, and examples of all three can be seen in these prize-winners.

Thirteen year-olds

It has been said in previous Judge’s Reports, but placing/position on the page/paper does make a difference. It is not that difficult for a teacher to indicate (or even draw a margin for younger children) so that the poems are not crammed tightly over on the left-hand side. A beautifully placed piece of writing, as in the winner of the ten year-olds (above) comes as a real joy!

Winner Group D

And the style of lettering makes no difference either – Italic, round letters, Copperplate-style looped letters are all in evidence here.

Staff Winners

And to show that good handwriting does not stop when children leave school, the three prize-winners in the Staff section are all to be praised for a natural, legible and consistent style.

Sand, sanders and writing

We’ve seen it so many times before. Someone in mediæval or slightly later costume picks up a full feather with a flourish, pretends to write on paper or skin, looks at what’s been written, then picks up something that looks like a salt pot, shakes a powder on the writing, looks at the writing again and then blows the powder away. The result? A wonderfully ‘blotted’ piece of writing.

Oh so wrong! First the idea that full feathers are used. If ever you have a chance, try to write well and quickly with something that is about 40 cm/18 inches long. It gets everywhere and is very difficult to control. Feathers are cut to pen length 22-3 cm/9 inches for ease of use. And the blotting of wet ink, by ‘sand’? The impression is that ‘sand’ is used because the shaker is called a ‘sander’ (see above). ‘Sand’ isn’t used, at least not the type that comes from the beach. Think of it. This sand is crystalline. If it could blot up ink then water from the sea would come on to the shore as a wave and then simply be soaked or blotted up, no water would return. Sand from the shore doesn’t blot.

The ‘sand’ that is used is gum sandarac. The crystals of gum sandarac are called ‘tears’ and they come from the tetraclinis articulata, which is a small tree (see right), similar to a cyprus, found in north-west Africa. The resin is either exuded naturally or, like rubber, is made by cutting the bark of the tree; it hardens on exposure to air.

The lumps, or tears, of gum sandarac, are ground to a pale yellow powder usually in a pestle and mortar. Once a powder, either it is used from a shaker (see above), or from a little bag (below) made from a piece of fine cotton usually tied up with string. Traditional shakers had a dished or concave top, so that excess sand could be shaken back into the container.

Gum sandarac provides a very fine coating on paper or skin. This coating acts as a resist and so either the strokes of the letters are very fine, as on vellum, or it seals the surface of the sheet of paper. Hand-made paper in historical times was surface sized (nowadays paper is tub- or vat-sized – see the blog about paper). It was not always thoroughly done. If paper isn’t properly sized, ink will blot and strokes will have lots of little ‘bleeds’ like spiders’ legs. Gum sandarac prevented this and so it was and is always used before writing and not afterwards.

The last two photographs of gum sandarac and how to use it are from my new Illumination book. It looks like the log jam has at last been shifted and it may even go to the printers this year!

Codex Amiatinus – a very English book with an Italian name

Abbott Ceofrid (pronounced Chalfrith) must have been a remarkable man. At the beginning of the eighth century, he was in charge of the twin foundations of St Peter’s at Monkwearmouth (now Sunderland) and also St Paul’s, Jarrow (right), both on or very close to the coast on the far north-east of England. The church buildings have evidence of Anglo-Saxon work, and although both have been much altered, it is still possible to get something of the feeling of what it must have been like at the time of Ceolfrid and Bede; Bede lived at Jarrow.

In 692, Ceolfrid commissioned three great pandects (all the books of the bible in one volume) to be created, one for Monkwearmouth, one for Jarrow and one to take with him when he went to see Pope Gregory II in Rome; this last book became the Codex Amiatinus. The date is fairly certain because it was in that year that the twin foundations were given a grant of extra land, needed to raise the cattle required for these books. (Map of Jerusalem on the right from the Codex Amiatinus)

Each of the three books had 1029 leaves from calfskin, which was of exceptionally fine quality. The books were large, one calfskin would have had the edges trimmed and then folded in two to make four pages. It’s been estimated that 2,000 cattle were needed for the project, and it should be pointed out that these would be calves, not fully grown mature cattle because their skin is too thick and unwieldy. The books weighed over 5 stone each (75 lbs, 35 kg), and would have required two strong people to move them once bound.

The writing in the Codex Amiatinus is a particularly fine uncial script (opening of St Mark on the right), and for many years was thought to be produced by scribes in or from Rome because of its quality. It must have taken years to produce three great books; seven scribes have been identified and there is evidence that the Venerable Bede was involved in the project. It was only at the beginning of the last century, and then only because of its similarity to other manuscripts known to have been produced at Monkwearmouth/Jarrow, that scholars agreed that the books would have been written by English scribes in England. There is no punctuation, but sections start with a large initial, and it is written as per cola et commata, which means that it is set out as clauses in a sentence, and indented as such. It is remarkably easy to navigate despite there being few illustrations or big headings.

The text is an almost pure form of the Latin Vulgate translation of St Jerome (the language used at the time, nothing to do with it being ‘vulgar’), and is thought to be have based on a book called the Codex Grandior, an Italian 6th century book, and again a pandect, but now lost. Benedict Biscop, who has recently been adopted as the patron saint of Sunderland, was the founder of the monasteries, as well as being Ceolfrid’s predecessor. He and Ceolfrid visited Rome in 678 and brought back books, including the Codex Grandior, bought from the library of the Vivarium, a monastery set up by Cassiodorus, on the site of modern Santa Maria de Vetere near Squillace, in Italy. (Right: The Ezra page from the Codex Amiatinus)

Two of the pandects stayed in England at Jarrow and Monkwearmouth, but, when he was 74 years of age, on 16th June in 716, Ceolfrid set out for Rome with the third book. It must have been a tearful departure as the monks knew they would not see their dear abbot again. Sadly, Ceolfrid didn’t get to Rome but died at Langres, Burgundy, in France on September 24th the same year.

By the 9th century, the pandect was at the monastery of Monte Amiata, near Siena, which gave the book its current name. It remained there until 1792 when the monastery closed and it was taken to the Laurentian Library in Florence, where it is to this day. In 1888 a scholar called Giovanni Battista de Rossi noted the similarity in text to the bibles mentioned by Bede, and also noted that the dedication of Petrus Langobardorum (Peter of Lombardy, see right, line 5) had been added over Ceolfridus Anglorum (Ceolfrid of England) which had been partially removed. This was one of the great Ceolfrid pandects.

What happened to the two books that stayed? We have evidence that one was presented to King Offa when it was thought that it was a book from Rome, but that hasn’t survived, and nor has the other. However, individual leaves have. The most famous is the Greenwell leaf (right) discovered by the Reverend Greenwell in an old register that he said he bought in Newcastle. Other leaves have turned up including one from a book found at Kingston Lacy; mainly these are used as binding waste, which is why they are often discoloured and with pieces cut off.

So the Codex Amiatinus, one of the most famous books in the world because of its purity of text and script, is actually an English book produced by English scribes from Northumbria. Perhaps its name should be changed to Codex Northumbrianus (or whatever the Latin translation would be!).

Apples of Gold

Being a scribe and illuminator, I usually work in 2-D, but love, and am fascinated by, lettering in 3-D. I decided that I would experiment with the various ways of working when lettering isn’t flat and chose A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver from Proverbs in the Bible.

The first thing that I realised was that I would need a different lettering style from those I was used to. Pen-made letters were too thin and fragile, and the shapes needed to be blockier and more substantial. The second was appreciating that, although on paper, lines can extend beyond others, when the words are going to be part of something solid, every letter has to be supported and linked. So rules of spacing and evenness of rhythm went out the window, as ‘apples of’ had to be squeezed in between the lines of ‘is like’ and ‘gold in’. I also had the idea of making the letters o as apples with a cunning stalk and leaf which I could rotate and use to link and support some of the letters.

My brother-in-law is a designer, artisan and a caster in metal, and he took my design forward, creating a mould (right) which could be cast in metal.

This was placed in a metal surround, dusty white powder sprinkled on top, and then fine sand added on top of that.

This would be one side of the cast metal, but it needed a back as well, so another metal surround was added, and the process replicated with the back of the mould.

Large holes and channels were made so that the metal could flow easily into the sand and design, and then the actual mould removed.

Red-hot liquid metal was transported from the furnace and poured into the hole made in the sand to spread out through the channels into the spaces of the designed piece. This was one of the most exciting stages, seeing that heat and smoke from liquid metal.

But the most exciting was seeing the metal surrounds being separated and removed, once the metal had had time to cool, then the sand removed to reveal the bronze cast shape of my design. Of course it needed a lot of cleaning up, but even in this raw state it looked absolutely amazing. Jim was able to then polish the bronze and ensure that the apple-shaped letters o were burnished to look like actual apples of gold, and mount the cast piece in a marble base. The whole process was absolutely fascinating. Now I need to make some time to create my next idea!

Character Traits – Jean Larcher

Jean Larcher is one of the world’s great calligraphers. His skills and expertise in creating wonderful letter-forms is shown in many of his works, which always have an enviable liveliness and vibrancy. He is also extremely generous. When I used to run a charity for children, schools and carers interested in all forms of letters and lettering, he kindly sent me a large package of his publications which stood me in good stead for prizes for children’s competitions for a long time! It was Jean’s wonderfully vibrant lettering that was used on the outside of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, UK, for the Calligraphy Today exhibition that I co-curated in 2011-12.

Jean has now published a collection of his lettering – Character Traits. It is a huge book, both in width and height, but also in number of pages, over 600 of them! The books is simply wonderful in so many ways. The obvious care with which it has been designed – by Jean’s equally talented wife Katharina Pieper – the way in which the pieces are set out on the page, and the details for each piece make this book a must-have for anyone interested in calligraphy and lettering. Jean is studying the huge pile of pages on the right above. Photographs from Jean’s website.

Many of the pieces of calligraphy are to do with lettering, and Jean’s versatility is shown here, with the same text as that used on the poster outside the Fitzwilliam Museum.

Other pieces show different writing styles. This one is based on early writing styles. It is notoriously difficult to justify hand-written letters to create an even left margin and an even right margin. Yet here Jean has achieved that. In addition to this, though, the texture is remarkably even (make your eyes slightly blurred) yet with only four lines in thirteen needing a word to be split. This is a real tour-de-force.

And a remarkably restrained piece, but with wonderful free and distinctive joins between letters s and following letters, creating a repetitive pattern within an even texture.

Having proved that he is a supreme master in pen control and letter-form, Jean also shows that free lettering is another style in which he excels. This has an almost graffiti style, but I would hazard a guess that there would be few people who would protest if something as beautiful as this was written on walls in our towns! The shape of the lettering, with the small lettered insertions, and the red sections as well is an intriguing but most pleasing design.

These few examples give something of the flavour of this wonderful book and I can recommend it no more highly.

Shakespeare and writing

It is so heartwarming when production companies take their projects seriously enough to ensure that things are done properly, and this was the case with the forthcoming production of Shakespeare in Love in London’s West End.

I was asked to teach actor Tom Bateman (right), who is William Shakespeare in the play, how to cut and use a quill.

The teaching session was in the Playhouse Theatre and that particular night was the Press Night, so the red carpet was out (I knew it wasn’t for me!) and preparations were being made for that evening. I’ve never been at a Press Night and it all looked very exciting.

We found a quiet room off the bar, I set knives, feathers, ink and hand-made paper up on a table, and Tom looked for a bin – essential for quill cutting.

I went through the stages of quill cutting, with quickly drawn diagrams, and explained the process as I cut and changed a swan’s wing feather into a usable pen. Then it was Tom’s turn. At first he didn’t realise quite how tough the barrels of feathers are, but once I’d shown him how to place his thumbs and the angle of the knife for maximum effect, he was well away. It’s so marvellous teaching people who pick things up quickly, and Tom had a good quill cut in no time.

Then it was on to the writing; I had some hand-made paper with me that had a slightly textured surface, which would have been similar to the paper used in Elizabethan times (and at this time it is more likely to have been paper than vellum or parchment). Tom enjoyed the ‘tooth’ between a well-cut quill and the paper, and the scratching sound of the quill nib – there’s nothing like it! I also explained how precious paper was. The screwed up rejects of paper thrown over Shakespeare’s shoulder in the Shakespeare in Love film as he suffered from writer’s block were very unlikely. Paper was just too expensive to be wasted like this!

So all stages of cutting and using a quill were revised again, and Tom was happy with the process, so, armed with my DVD to remind him of what he had learned, he was then off to buy a quill knife (I use X-Acto knives with replaceable blades, removing the pointed blade that it comes with with a curved blade that are sold in sets of five) and feathers to practise.

I’m looking forward very much indeed to the production at the Noel Coward Theatre, and will be eagle-eyed to ensure that the quill is cut properly (if it writes and you end up with the right numbers of digits after cutting it, it’s fine!). It will also be interesting to see if Tom has any little ‘starting writing’ processes – I did suggest one to him, and if he uses it, you know where it came from!

A very special Book of Remembrance

I am often asked, when I’m talking to arts, general interest and history groups, what project or commission I have done which has meant the most to me. Without a doubt it’s the Books of Remembrance for Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children. This year I have been associated with this for over 25 years, and there are more than 3,200 names written in what are now four volumes.

I was fortunate enough to have been involved from the very beginning such that when I was asked where to buy books of remembrance, I was able to say that the best place to start was with the paper, and then get it bound, and fortunately this is what happened. It makes setting up the book such as drawing the lines so much more straightforward and it is much quicker to work initially on flat pieces of paper.

Important decisions were taken early on in the planning. Rather than a list of names, the book was to be a ‘day’ book, whereby each day would be on display consecutively, showing those children who had died on that date. This meant that there were to be 366 pages at least for the days, plus prelims and pages at the end, including the colophon.

Most books of remembrance are written in black, red with sometimes a touch of gold. This seemed too cold and harsh for children, and we decided early on that green would be the best colour to use; it suggests youth and, indeed, life. Oxide of chromium calligraphy gouache is one of the best colours to write with and it is a fresh and light colour, yet with good coverage, and this is the colour I chose to use. It is from the Schmincke Calligraphy Gouache set of paints that I developed, and so is particularly finely ground to pass easily through the pen.

Another decision that was made before any pencil had been put to paper, was how the record of the children’s lives should be written. We had much discussion about the dates – 1st January 2014 – 3rd March 2014, or 1 January 2014 to 3 March 2014, or 1.1.2014, or 1.1.14 etc etc. The night before the final meeting and sign off I realised that these forms of dates were appropriate for monarchs and politicians, but were just not right for children. For children we think of their age, not their dates. So the ages are written in specifically – until 2 weeks the age is recorded as the number of days, from 2 weeks to 2 months in weeks, from 2 months to 2 years in months and after that in years.

I made quite a few trials on how the pages should be set out, avoiding anything over fussy and elaborate. Again for the children we didn’t want a tightly spaced list. For a number of children, their short lives are full of drips, bandages, injections, and general intrusion; at least in death, we felt, there should be some space for their names. The book is large, and when open is about the size of a small coffee table. There are only 14 names of children, with their ages, on each two-page opening spread, 7 on each page.

As the book was to be open each day for that date, I realised that, initially, there would be many pages with nothing on them apart from the date at the top. I suggested that I paint a little flower picture on the left-hand page for a bit of visual interest. I chose what were generally British flowers appropriate for each month of the year, but I did also add a personal touch here, in that they were flowers that I enjoyed drawing. Calligraphy and illustration on the same page can be a problem – which should be more important? In this book it certainly was the children’s names, so a full colour, detailed painting would have detracted from these. After much experimentation I decided on something simple and compatible with the design of the book. I outlined the design with a fine dark green line, and used two colours of dilute watercolour to paint only some of the flowers and leaves, leaving others uncoloured; similar to the children’s lives – they are finished but not complete.

I had the choice of paper, and so chose a favourite Arches which is quite robust, not too thick but also not too expensive. I experimented with pen nib size on the paper I was to use. Some names are very short – Sam Dun, for example, other children may have five or even six long names. How to give prominence to Sam, yet not have to squeeze the multiple names so much so that they would be almost illegible. I also decided to make the age and the year smaller, so that the names were prominent.

Then it was the time to start. I set out a template so that I could rule lines across the opening spread of both pages – wider guidelines for the names and narrower ones for the ages; I also needed guidelines for the beginning and endings of the columns. Just ruling the lines took well over a week of long days. Simply folding the paper to make the pages of the book took over a day.

I added some red and a bit of blue to darken the oxide of chromium green for the dates to head each paper. Again this was not straightforward. What size nib, and thus size of writing, would be best to use to allow for large lettering that will cope with both December twentysecond to be written along one line (not two) and yet May first would not be lost?

I lost count of how long each little flower drawing took – all 366 of them – but this was a labour of love, not one where I was totting up the hours.

What I did realise fairly soon, having all these pages stacked up in a huge pile, was that one book would be far too unwieldy, and asked the hospital if they could stretch to having two books bound by designer bookbinder Jen Lindsay. In fact, although not planned, this resulted in a great positive in that one book could be on display while the other volume was then available for the names to be written in. Jen did a great job of binding the books in a matching green leather, and made two book boxes which keep the volumes protected and safe when being stored.

The names are written in at least twice a year, and we are now into volumes 3 and 4 because some of the pages in the original books are full. For those of you who are calligraphers, the names are written in a pen nib size of 3·5, and the ages in the line underneath in the smaller nib size of 4. I am now on my second sets of nibs after 3,200 names. Before I begin writing in the names I set everything out on a stool as on the right. A well-used kitchen towel protects the stool top, and on this a Chinese jade (coincidentally also green!) pen rest has dips for the two pen nib sizes and a paint brush for mixing the paint. I use a small scientific crucible for the paint, and this has a little lid to pop on top to protect the gouache when I need a break. A small jam jar of water is available for washing the pen nibs frequently, as well as a jar of fresh water and an ink dropper to add water to the paint when it gets a bit sticky. Then, just in case, another jar of clean water, a fine brush, and an electric eraser for the times when I make a mistake. I also always sharpen the nibs before writing; this ensures that the letter-strokes are clean and crisp.

But all these are the nuts and bolts of what is certainly not a nuts and bolts job. First, it has been absolutely crucial to have a marvellous team at the hospital, especially Kathy Ramsay and Senior Chaplain Jim Linthicum who collate the names and ages, check, check and check again (and some of the names do need a huge amount of checking with combinations of consonants that are very difficult to pronounce), and contact the parents at what must always be a very difficult time to ensure that everything is correct. However, even more than this, it is about the children. Many of us have never been through the incomprehensible and devastating experience of losing a child. When I am writing out the children’s names I think about each and every one – their names and then their ages – those that are only a day or so old; the bigger babies who may be sitting up or even starting to walk; the toddlers talking away and such a cause of enjoyment; children who may have just started school and then growing up, and the teenagers, and even the few in their twenties; all are someone’s child, and the loss must be impossible to bear.
Recording their names in these wonderful books means that, no matter how short their lives, each child is remembered and is not forgotten. What has always impressed me about Great Ormond Street as well is that the sense that I get from them is the joy and delight of children while they are with us and how valuable that is. The verse of Ben Jonson’s poem, written at the beginning of the first volume (right), does seem to sum it up, and the illustration of a day lily (above) is on the front of the card that was sent to parents.

London Tube Typeface

The London Underground has a very distinctive and unifying look with the names of the stations, directions, and the distinctive roundel. This is due to one man, and he was the calligrapher Edward Johnston. Johnston could be said to have been the father of modern calligraphy working in the first half of the last century. In 1913 the Underground’s publicity manager, Frank Pick, commissioned Johnston to design a company typeface; his brief was for ‘bold simplicity’ and the design was finished in 1916.

Johnston designed just one weight of type, and this was based on the very calligraphic proportions of 7 pen nib widths of Roman Capitals, with the proportions being the same and letters i and j having diamond dots. However, there is no weighting (thicks and thins) to the strokes in that they are monoline, and it was a san serif design. Johnston was very particular about his designs and apparently when one of his students offered to create a bold weight, Johnston blanked him for many years.

The London Underground roundel appeared in 1908 as a red disc and a blue bar. Edward Johnston took the roundel and developed it into the design that is used on stations today with the name horizontally across the centre.

From 1919 Johnston’s bull’s eye roundel was used on publicity, the outsides of stations and platform nameboards. He went back to the design and gave exact guidelines for the proportions.

Johnston was asked again to design the London Passenger Transport Board under the name of London Transport in 1933. This sign was used on all vehicles, signs and publicity.

It isn’t too surprising how a strong design such as this has lasted through the decades.

Patricia Lovett MBE

Calligraphy | Illumination | Design