Diary of a Master Printer

Oxford is home to one of the world's oldest and largest university presses. From its emergence in the 16th century, a cornerstone of its reputation was the growing prowess of its printing, overseen by the University Printer. Bibles and subsequently dictionaries poured from its presses, underpinning the success of what became a global enterprise. Yet by the late 1960s the firm was in crisis. Profits were falling, expansion highlighted tensions within management, and for the Printer industrial strife coupled with rapid technological change threatened survival. As Printer since 1958 Vivian Ridler knew he was living through a critical period. He began a year-long daily diary in June 1970, partly in response to the just-published Waldock Report into the Press that recommended radical reform. How should the Printing House evolve? Why indeed should a publisher own a printer at all? In this engrossing record, full of acute and often humorous observations, Ridler deals with unrealistic union men and tough challenges from publishing colleagues. He tours the Works regularly, often wishing he hadn't given the problems highlighted, and visits the sick in hospital. The head of the business Colin Roberts asks for his advice, then ignores it. The deputy head Dan Davin surprises him with a personal confession. The laid-back London Publisher John Brown rouses him to fury by refusing to take responsibility for a decision requiring a vastly expensive new printing machine. Meantime Valerie Eliot ensconces herself for a week near the Printer's office, delaying publication of The Waste Land facsimile whose proofs she is checking. Ridler travels often to London, advising industry bodies, judging design awards, and hearing gossip from old publishing friends about Paul Hamlyn's lavish wedding party for 500 guests, or a film with Sophia Loren being made by Charlie Chaplin at Pinewood. One of his own elaborate 8mm films is admired by Philip Larkin. As a lover of the theatre, he is a board member of the Oxford Playhouse; he shares in the excitement of the first performance of Elizabeth Maconchy's opera The Jesse Tree, with a libretto by his wife Anne. Leading figures visit him, from the bibliophile Sir Geoffrey Keynes to the scientist Rex Richards. Displaying its author's characteristic humanity and wit, the diary offers an intimate portrait of a famous institution and casts fresh light on industrial relations and the wider cultural landscape during a momentous epoch. Colin Ridler, Editor of the diary, worked for over four decades at the publisher Thames & Hudson. He is Vivian Ridler's youngest son.