Seventy Years in Bookbinding - A Portrait of Bernard Middleton

DVD Produced and Published by the Society of Bookbinders

Multi Regional, PAL-NTSC, 4:3 format

Bernard C. Middleton, M.B.E., F.S.A is one of the most skilled craftsman of our time. His extraordinary career has now spanned some seventy years, as bookbinder, teacher and writer.

In this film, Bernard looks back on his long and varied life in bookbinding, which began at the Central School of Arts & Crafts in 1938. He remembers his apprenticeship years at the British Museum and reflects on his time spent as the manager of Zaehnsdorf's.

He talks about his early years of self-employment in a garret room in Soho, his American adventures and his experiences in the flood-damaged libraries of Florence.

Bernard shares some of his extraordinary techniques for restoring antiquarian books, including the best places to find dirt for ageing new bindings. He takes us on a tour of his bindery, with its huge collection of finishing tools and old paper and demonstrates his method of reproducing facsimile pages.

With his characteristically understated humour, his sharp mind and thoughtful observations on the he craft that he loves, Bernard gives us a truly fascinating, often moving and always enjoyable insight into his remarkable world.

123 minutes, Multi Regional, PAL-NTSC, 4:3 format