the book collector
selection of quotes from letters sent to my ancestors describing their visits to 50 Albemarle Street. From such as Byron, Washington Irving, David Livingstone, Cavour and Herman Melville. It was entitled Variations on Number Fifty. A Limited edition compiled and printed by John Murray VII for his friends and the friends of Fifty Albemarle Street. It was illustrated by line drawings by Osbert Lancaster, of which I made steel repro plates, and I personally de- signed the cover showing the front door of No. 50. When I arrived at Butler & Tanner I was put under the supervision of a wonderful no-nonsense foreman. Reg had an incredible eye from years of ex- perience – and complete contempt for ‘new-fangled’ designers who had just come out from art school. He sensibly designed by eye not by measurement. In those days the print unions were all-powerful: you only had to touch the machinery or the stone for them all to go out on strike. As a concession I was allowed to typeset Variations on Number Fifty on a monotype machine, but I could only use Centaur as the letter ‘t’ was missing from the font and I had to insert each missing ‘t’ by hand. Because of this they were happy for me to set the book as I wasn’t depriving their members of any work. Once I was installed at Murray’s I was sent on an overseas mar- keting tour to meet our main overseas agents and booksellers. Wherever I went I received a warm welcome as everyone seemed to know of the famous house of John Murray. Oxford University Press had represented us for many years in Pakistan and India where I was to meet the Minister of Education. On arrival his secretary sat me down and asked me to wait. After I had waited a long time, I asked when my meeting would take place. He replied, ‘As soon as Mr. Murray arrives’. When I explained that I was Mr. Murray, the secretary told me that they had been expecting an elderly man with a long white beard. Murray’s and their books had been famous for so many years on the subcontinent that they clearly did not expect a youngster like me. We had a marvellous agent in Karachi who arranged for me to visit the Karachi Girls’ High School, where I planned to talk about Murray’s educational books with the head- mistress. However on arrival and without warning I was told I was to give a talk to the sixth form and was led to the assembly hall and guided onto the rostrum in front of a room full of beautiful Pakistani
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