John Crombie on his Kickshaws Press
Series: Biblio File in France
Kickshaws\xa0is a\xa0private press\xa0founded in Paris in 1979 by\xa0John Crombie,\xa0and\xa0Sheila Bourne\xa0who often produces artwork for the books. Together they have hand-printed more than 150 small books. The design, typography and materials used to create Kickshaws publications are unusual. As a result it's difficult to define exactly what they are. Among other things, they display a wide range of type-faces and designs,\xa0letterpress\xa0printing in multiple colours, and unusual formats and bindings, including\xa0 plastic comb-bindings that enable the pages of a book to be turned in different sequences.\xa0 As for content, most of the books contain Crombie's poetry or fiction or his translations of French humorist/absurdist writers. These including\xa0Samuel Beckett,\xa0Alphonse Allais\xa0and\xa0Pierre Henri Cami.\xa0The artwork includes drawings, linocuts and images printed from a variety of different materials including string and wallpaper. Kickshaws publishes books in both French and English.
I met with John at his atelier in Charit\xe9-sur-Loire, south of Paris. Subjects covered include children's books, UNESCO, Edward Gorey, origins of the word 'Kickshaws', French humorists, Raymond Queneau, One Hundred Thousand Billion Poems, Bertram Rota,\xa0Charlene\xa0Garry and the Basilisk Press, enthusiasm, multi-choice stories, combining inks, using wallpaper, life intersecting with work,\xa0Montparnasse and the\xa0March\xe9\xa0de la\xa0Po\xe9sie in Paris