There are a variety of books in preparation, and below I'll list them with brief details of what is planned (working titles only!).

Peter Reddick's Landscapes
Peter Reddick has had a long and distinguished artistic career, principally as a wood engraver, and is well-known for his illustrations to the entire Folio Society series of Thomas Hardy's novels. Peter has devoted much of his career to this singular task, and for a sizeable portion of the reading public the names Hardy and Reddick are as closely linked as, say, those of Dickens and 'Phiz'. In these as well as many other volumes, most recently the Folio Wordsworth edition, Peter's absolute mastery in depiction of the landscape comes to the fore. It is therefore a special delight to gather together about eighteen of his blocks, in a wide variety of settings, in this volume, printed on dampened paper on an Albion Press. Ready summer 2009. A prospectus will be sent to existing customers, or you can ask me for one.

Thomas Bewick's Last Days
with a Commentary by Iain Bain
Aware that his final days were running short, Thomas Bewick made a journey – his second – to London in 1828 in order to tie up sales of remaining stocks of his books, and to see old friends. The journey began on his 75th birthday, and within three months he had died. He wrote the account of his journey on a piece of banknote paper, and his daughter Jane later pasted it into a bound set of correced proofs of her father's Memoir. Iain Bain, renowned scholar of all that is Bewick, has added a prefatory note and fascinating commentary bringing Bewick's account to life. For publication in 2009.

Swarbrick's List of Wharfedale Flies
with an introduction by Leslie Magee
Trout fishermen using fishing flies carefully made from feathers to imitate tasty insects have for centuries favoured the River Wharfe for their sport, standing in deep pools to cast their line upstream; John Swarbrick's List of Flies for the River Wharfe, written in 1807, existed only as manuscript copies passed down within local families until it was printed in 1907, but copies of this are excessively rare. The list is the earliest one which gives details of the dressings for the flies, and their uses. The descriptions will be printed as a miniature book, almost one to a page, with each fly (there are 30) photographed and reproduced on fold-out pages printed by J.W.Northend. There will be several illustrations by Joan Hassall; Leslie Magee, who is a well-known expert on Yorkshire fishing flies, will write an introduction. Printed at the Fleece Press in 7pt Monotype Garamond set by Harry McIntosh in Edinburgh, on blue 1950s handmade paper, bound in marbled paper made in 1995 by Compton Marbling.
There is only one miniature book in the world which also bears actual fishing flies, and Swarbrick's List of Wharfedale Flies will be the second. Each standard copy will have one fly sewn into the back board and one sewn into the front board, and 100 deluxe copies will show all thirty in a specially-constructed binding design made by Ken and Joyce Smith, my co-publisher, housed in an oak box made by Stephen Byrne. 260 standard copies (£64) and 100 specials (£485), split equally between Ken Smith Publishing and the Fleece Press. A prospectus will be issued shortly.

Leslie Cole, Official War Artist
by Malcolm Yorke
Leslie Cole's wartime career was nothing short of extraordinary. Malcolm Yorke and I met at the Imperial War Museum a couple of years ago to see the collection of Ardizzone paintings, and while we awaited the curator's arrival we saw several paintings by Cole in a temporary exhibition. A student of Bawden and Ravilious at the Royal College of Art, Cole's watercolour technique could in some cases be mistaken for that of Ravilious. Cole saw action in Britain, Germany (he recorded the liberation of Belsen) and Malta (experiencing the harrowing, prolonged bombing which that island suffered), before going out to the Far East. All the time he painted what he saw, often highly complex pictures which rely on a strong sense of pattern for their impact. Malcolm has unearthed a great deal of material on an artist whose later career never quite matched the sheer brilliance of his wartime work. Malcolm Yorke's authorial skills are among the finest employed by the press in the past thirty years, and each of his books is eagerly awaited by readers and scholars alike. Cole's wife Brenda played a significant part in the downfall of the Vicar of Stiffkey in the early 1930s, a true cause celebre; he was unfrocked for consorting with prostitutes but died after being mauled by a circus lion while proclaiming his innocence, and this fascinating story is told afresh in the book. Brenda successfully reinvented herself and concealed her origins very well, becoming a gifted potter, and some of her work will also be shown.

John Buckland Wright's copper engravings
by Christopher Buckland Wright
Collectors of the Press' books will know that five books relating to the work of John Buckland Wright have appeared under this imprint, and have been among the best of its output. Christopher Buckland Wright, the artist's son, has gathered together surviving copper plates left in the artist's studio at the time of his death, and will write about the work in general, some of which is considered to be the pinnacle of JBW's work. Copies of the book will include at least one tipped-in plate printed from the original copper, and special copies will include a larger variety. More news in due course.

forthcoming books: Tirzah
Planned for maybe five years has been a monumental production based on the Autobiography which Tirzah Garwood, the wife of Eric Ravilious, wrote when she was coming toward the end of her life. Tirzah has a facility in her writing for perceptive observation of the world around her, and I would happily rate her story alongside Gwen Raverat's Period Piece, while being substantially longer and more detailed. The section on life in Great Bardfield during the 1930s, among the unique artistic community (you could almost use melee to describe it) is a fascinating first-hand, slightly detached account of a precious and outstanding group of artists. Her daughter Anne Ullmann has written a critical study of Tirzah's work, and the books will take the form of two consecutive publications. I ofen feel that books I publish have been a privilege to bring into the world, this one being no exception.

forthcoming books: the Fleece Press Bibliography
After thirty years it seems no longer to be premature to think of a Bibliography, and David Butcher has been working towards the Press' first such. Publication is planned for 2010, and details will be announced in due course; all copies will bear tipped-in original material.