I’ve published books before, but I don’t remember quite the same sense of heightened anxiety when the first and only copy arrived today, air freighted from China and hand bound in England.

You don’t know quite what to expect: a bit smaller than imagined which means that it looks like a book to read; creamy paper; photographs taken back so that the colour is consistent and they sit neatly in the text. This was all the work of Harry Pearce and Johannes Grimond of Pentagram who fiddled with the detailing at the height of COVID. It was worth it.

What really transformed the book was a grant in April for the illustrations from donors who do not want to be named, but when I look at the book I think most of all with gratitude of them, not to mention the wonderful hard-working picture researcher turned project manager who laboured on it from March to September.

I salute them all !