Banana cake

Tonight at printing we were treated to another recipe from the Edmonds Cookery Book - banana cake.

The master printer's version looked perfect and tasted delicious. As there were only three of us in attendance at the Ancora Press tonight (one of our number being stuck outside Richmond station on a Pakenham train which was in turn stuck behind a V/line train), we decided to call stumps before 7.30, to give us more time to enjoy the cake and a cup of tea.

Consequently I set only a few lines tonight - the completion of last week's discursion on Manius Aquillius and the start of a new extract about avoiding the foul air of London by taking a train to Windsor.

A discussion of the Edmonds banana cake recipe is available on the Edmonds challenge blog. Here is a picture of Brian's delicious cake and its lovely old fashioned tin.

 

Eat and drink the world

In all yesterday's excitement about the Belgium biscuits, I omitted to report on the actual work undertaken at the Ancora Press on a cold windy night in Caulfield.

Brian and John spent a lot of time trying to coax the Albion Press into action, without noticeable success. The last work successfully printed on this press is the broadside A poem on the art of printing, published in 2010. Various technical difficulties and competing priorities from the Fine Arts students have prevented any further production. And sadly the Arab platen press is still out of bounds awaiting maintenance.

Meanwhile Pam and I continued setting the obscure cricket work. I managed to set the following text without dropping any lines of type or other major mishap (although what it has to do with cricket I am yet to discover):

The amount of food some of the passengers stowed away would have caused a look of consternation on the face of that gigantic and fleet-footed Eastern monarch who threw out an open challenge to eat and drink the world. I refer to that master of twenty-five different languages who poured molten gold down the throat of the Roman Consul, Manius Aquillius, and who, in order to prevent his harem falling into the hands of enemies, caused the lot to be put to death, specifically honour-

And at that point it was time for tea and Belgium biscuits. Hopefully the remainder of this extract and its relevance to the work in hand will be revealed in due course - but it may take some time.

 

Belgium biscuits

Today's treat at printing was Belgium (or Belgian) biscuits. The print master has been trying his hand at baking and the latest offering proved a resounding success.

His version consisted of spicy biscuits sandwiched together with jam (a New Zealand brand, naturally) and topped with a blob of icing and a choc bit. The kiwi expat amongst us knew immediately what they were, but they were a new experience to the rest of us.

The recipe comes from the Edmonds Cookery Book, which apparently has the same status in New Zealand as the PWMU or the Green and Gold cookery books have in Victoria and South Australia. Our Belgian biscuits came with an apology for the substitution of choc bits for the cherries specified in the original recipe, so I was amused to read in this blog entry from Pat Churchill (which includes the recipe) that she had never seen them made with cherries. In her experience red jelly crystals were the popular choice of the discerning housewife.

It seems to me that the Belgium biscuits baked for the Ancora Press, with their restrained blobs of white icing and discreet chocolate decoration, are decidely more elegant than the garish pink and red creations suggested by the venerable Edmonds.

 

Ancora, cricket and New Zealand

Wednesday night again: printing night. The 5.07 to Richmond; the next available train to Caulfield; the walk to the Fine Arts building which houses the Ancora Press and the artists books studio; and once again I am amidst the dedicated journeymen and master of the Ancora Press.

The Jack Lindsay poem about D.H. Lawrence is not yet published, as we are experiencing hardware issues (the Arab platen press needs maintenance, and the students need to use the Albion). Meanwhile we are setting selected extracts of an account of a world cricket tour. As I have only seen disjointed extracts of this work I have no idea of its authorship or period. The latest extract tells the sorry tale of the team's arrival by ship in Auckland, only to discover it is Sunday and the welcoming toast is made with empty glasses, on account of the liquor licensing laws in force in New Zealand at that time. But it could have been worse - some provinces enjoyed total prohibition.

The end of our shift is traditionally concluded with a cup of tea and a biscuit. Then it is home time. The vagaries of Melbourne's evening public transport schedules dictate a radically different solution for the return journey: the 8.00 624 Kew bus followed by a Riversdale Road tram. Sometimes they even connect ...

 

Morgan Bach published

Some time ago I promised to let you know when the Ancora Press publication Morgan Bach became available. That happy time has arrived and the book may now be ordered from Ancora Press.

A wonderful description is available in Trove.

An image of the title page is available on Flickr.

Morgan Bach is the haunting tale of a mother and son separated and reunited after Morgan's voyage to Australia in colonial times. Setting the original poem in Welsh posed many challenges for the journeymen and master of the Ancora Press and we are very proud that this beautiful book is now available.

Tale of a journeyman

Today I discovered that my official title at Ancora Press is 'journeyman'. This means I'm trusted to do routine tasks such as setting, distributing and sorting type, but must follow the direction of the master for more complex tasks including actual printing.

We are now engaged on setting the introduction and notes for Jack Lindsay's D.H. Lawrence poem. I predict that this is going to take a long time. Meanwhile Morgan Bach is expected back from the binders any day now. We are planning a very special launch of our Welsh masterpiece.

Lawrence and Lindsay

The latest Ancora Press project is a poem by Jack Lindsay about D. H. Lawrence. The free-verse poem laments Lindsay's failure to meet Lawrence during Lawrence's visit to Australia - although Lindsay and Lawrence corresponded after Lindsay moved to England, unfortunately they never actually met.

My job for tonight was setting the notes, which taught me that Lindsay, Frank Johnson and Kenneth Slessor edited a literary quarterly called Vision in 1923-24. Thanks as ever to Trove for the bibliographic details. I also learnt that Lindsay lived in a rented house in Bondi before his move to England.

The setting of the poem is nearly finished but it will take some time to set the comprehensive notes and the introduction by John Arnold. Publication will probably be in early 2012.

Morgan Bach in Australia

After months of work the latest Ancora Press publication is ready for binding. This is an ambitious production for the team of dedicated hand printers who meet at Monash Caulfield campus most Wednesday nights. The Ancora Press is shared with the Fine Arts department whose students use the facilities to produce artists' books.

Morgan Bach in Australia is a Welsh poem about a mother who grieves for her son when he decides to emigrate to Australia in colonial times. Both the original Welsh text and the English translation have been painstakingly set by hand and embellished with charming decorations.

The book will be available for sale in either a leather- or cloth-bound version. I'll keep you posted!