Books by Julian Berry

The Compton Press was, like much of the 1960s, a happening.It began, not with a grand design, but with a passion for letterpress printing.This passion was very infectious, and people were drawn to the mix of compositors, machine-minders, proof readers, editors, and typographers initially based in a converted cowshed and coach house in Compton Chamberlayne, Wiltshire.We stubbornly clung onto our liking for letterpress, and this led to our eventual demise, but for the 12 years that we lasted we printed over 500 editions of books, published over 100, and produced many journals, and uncountable items of jobbing printing.

Shifting Sand is the journal of Julian Berry, then a 17-year-old archaeologist, written on-site during excavations in Jordan, 1964. The book provides a fascinating insight into the lives of archaeologists over 50 years ago, and the very close links between the European team, the Arab workmen, and the daily life in a simple mud-brick village.