I’ve been sitting on this a while, trying to coaxe out some prose worthy of the subject, but coaxing doesn’t seem to be working and the thanks grow ever more overdue… So, plainly and simply: Alan Brignull of the Hedgehog Press very kindly sent me, more than a month ago, a package of his letterpress print work. It’s absolutely delightful.

A selection of Rambling Urchin issues

The Rambling Urchin, a letterpress production by Alan Brignull of the Hedgehog Press

The Rambling Urchin is his periodical, printed on an Adana letterpress machine (presumably something like this). There are issues of pure whimsy (“Numbo-jumbo / Mind Dribble”), type showcases (“BRAVE BADDIES GIVE ROTTEN STINGO […] relates to the illegal brewers of Adanaland […] It also uses every letter of 72-pt Albertus owned by Henry Morris of the Bird & Bull Press.”), poems, quotations apposite or otherwise, and little texts on (mainly) print-related issues.1 He’s a clever man with an ornament (see his virtuoso display for the August 2009 Letterpress Exchange Group, but also his cunning volcano). And his selections and writings have a gentle wit to them that complements his artistry wonderfully.

The package arrived announcing that it was “Real mail: certified not junk”, on a perforated strip bearing a six-digit serial number.2 As well as the Rambling Urchin issues, he sent me stamps from the Perfect State of Flatby (as seen here) and from Adanaland (including something like this one, although not overprinted and thus presumably less rare).

As you might guess from my linking all over the web, he doesn’t have a website. But googling will very likely turn up a few more gems; the Rambling Urchin has been running (in various formats) for more than 20 years and lots of other people have appreciated it along the way. Of course it’s not the same as the print version3 but it will have to do until you visit Adanaland.

And to Alan: thank you again for the tourist visa. I hope I’ll come back someday.

Notes:

  1. But not only printing. November 2007, the “Tuvan Edition”, gives the national anthem of the Republic of Tuva, along with a banner which “is supposed to say ‘Rambling Urchin’ but it could be ‘Nomad Spit-cunning’ as Tuvan dictionaries are hard to find”. [↪]
  2. The post office had rather disrespectfully gummed something machine-readable over it, but thankfully it came off without causing any damage. Probably it read “Real Mail: certified not junk”, in some encoding or other. [↪]
  3. Also included in the package: some wet ink, for the full sensory experience: the smell of letterpress! [↪]