But then your average Tuesday evening doesn’t typically involve heading to your first experience of a society you have somehow convinced yourself is printing’s answer to the Freemasons. Sure the website looked innocent enough. And certainly honorary secretary Alison Guy seemed perfectly lovely in her email inviting me to a Wynkyn de Worde talk on How Chekov Met Tolstoy.
But I’m not fooled. The website’s pleasant, engraved-effect sun logos and charming references to 15th century printing, sit alongside details of a suspiciously stringent-sounding membership policy. It stands to reason that print would have some sort of secret society, I think as I make my way to the talk. And this – with the event a likely ruse for all manner of rolled-up-trouser, masonic high-jinx – must be it.
Or perhaps not. I can certainly dismiss the first pleasant elderly lady who welcomes me into the ornate and historic Art Workers’ Guild building in Bloomsbury as a cunning ruse. But by the time I’ve been greeted warmly by Guy herself and the other society members present, it’s clear that you couldn’t get much further from ritualistic initiations involving daggers and blindfolds.
Fellow feeling
What also becomes apparent is just why this society, established more than 50 years ago, is still going strong and why keeping it just a little bit exclusive is no bad thing.
"The society has always had a very good kindred spirit, it’s evolved and changed as the industry has evolved and changed but it still remains the same in terms of it being a place where we can go and relax and meet like-minded people," says Philip Moore, a retired print managing director who has been attending the society’s four annual lunches and regular lectures since 1985.
"People who want to join must prove that they’re from a background of print and publishing and keenly interested in the trade in general. They’ll be asked to attend as many meetings as they can and to play a part in continuing the kindred spirit of the society," he adds. "Their sponsor invites them as a guest and introduces them to as many committee members as possible. The sponsor, together with a seconder, then proposes them for membership and at the next committee meeting they are elected as members…" he continues, adding that the society – currently 236 strong – has actually never turned anyone away to his knowledge.
And yet, as welcoming and inclusive as the Wynkyn de Worde is once you’ve found it, many in modern print might be surprised to hear such a group exists, and indeed that it has done for so long.
The society was born in 1957, when it was decided by a group of printers, papermakers, publishers and binders, that the industry could benefit from better cross-sector communication. Surviving minutes suggest the first meeting was held at Dr Johnson’s House near Fleet Street and that Arthur Heighway, publisher and proprietor of industry title Printing News, was the first elected president.
Joining him in founding the society was industry PR and publishing enthusiast Harold Hunter, a character famed among members as much for his appearance as being a real driving force in the society.
"Harold was a rather big, shaggy man, he looked like a sort of bumbling old uncle but in fact everything he organised went like a Swiss clock," reports Roy Fullick, who joined shortly after the society was founded and who was working for Punch magazine at the time. "He gave away a lot of his life to running the society," he adds.
The reasons for choosing Wynkyn de Worde as the title are no doubt obvious to print geeks; for the less geeky, de Worde was William Caxton’s journeyman and the first printer to set up shop on Fleet Street.
The events and activities held under the auspices of the Wynkyn de Worde society, typically at The Art Workers’ Guild or Stationers’ Hall, London, certainly live up to the prestige of the society’s namesake.
Included in the list of high-profile speakers the society has attracted to its series of talks on a whole range of print and publishing-related topics, are illustrator Quentin Blake, politician Roy Hattersley, crime writer PD James, former Private Eye editor Richard Ingrams, and television personality and writer Griff Rhys Jones. Each lunch also involves the production of a printed keepsake, some of which have been considered such fine examples of print that they now feature in the St Bride and Cambridge University libraries and Stationers’ Hall and Reading University collections.
Then there’s the list of illustrious places the society has been able to access, including Westminster Abbey library, to see the original books Wynkyn de Worde produced in Fleet Street, and the Corpus Christi library, Cambridge, to see a 6th-century illuminated Gospel Book and books with Anne Boleyn’s notations on.
"You just don’t get to see that sort of thing at all otherwise," says Philip Moore. "In 1995 we went to Paul Getty’s private library, and that was a fascinating visit because of the breadth of his collection and the beautiful French bindings we saw. We also saw his own cricket ground which every touring cricket team that has come to England has played a day’s cricket on. This sort of opportunity simply isn’t available to the general public."
Exchange of views
But the society’s appeal certainly isn’t confined to high-profile speakers and rarely visited places. Staying true to the society’s original aims, the key appeal of the group is still the opportunity to meet peers.
In fact, Guy, who joined the society in 1988 while working for Gordon Fraser Publishing, says informal sharing of information and experiences has in the past been put to surprising professional use.
"Harold Hunter worked for a company that produced gold leaf that was used for foil blocking on book covers, and he said that if they had done the whole of the Forth Bridge with gold leaf it would have saved them an awful lot of money on redecoration costs over the years," she says. "This story was remembered by another of our members, Margaret Hall, head of design at the British Museum, and when the Oriental Gallery was refurbished, gold leaf was applied to the walls as there would be no maintenance required for years."
The emphasis has always been, however, on building friendships rather than business contacts, each member makes clear as I chat to them during the Tolstoy event. "Occasionally we’ve had a speaker who has taken a business line, or a member who’s requested to sit next to someone for professional reasons, and it really jars with us," says former White Dove Press managing director Leo Smith.
The key to the Wynkyn de Worde Society’s enduring appeal, seems to be the delicate balance struck between forging friendships and sharing knowledge that might at some point be useful professionally. It’s about taking a step back from hectic schedules to discover what interesting things those in the same or related industries are up to.
"I’ve taken younger designers to give them a broader view of things," says Smith, explaining that, despite the world of work becoming ever more pressured, the society still has plenty of younger members still finding time to come.
"I think it’s important if you were brought up in the world of Apple to realise it didn’t start there," he adds. "People need to know where things came from in order to understand where they are going."
For more information about the Wynkyn de Worde Society, its events and becoming a member, visit www.wynkyndeworde.co.uk
Extracts from In Our Own Words: The Wynkyn de Worde Society 1957-2007
I like people and I like working with people, which in a way is a reflection of what the Wynkyn de Worde Society is about. For me it’s sort of bouncing off ideas on other people and other professions.
Bridget Wilkins Member since 1989
Those lunches… A young man, coming into the Society then would find himself rubbing shoulders with people who had been in the business before the war even, and there was a sort of continuity. And that probably is still the case today.
John Taylor Chairman in 1977
We are all kindred spirits. And whether that covers design and good type and printing, or whether it covers just being jolly and sociable, I’m not quite sure, but we’re all the same.
John Vanderpump Chairman in 1994
Some of the outings have been really spectacular; we’ve been able to visit some places with very important libraries. And some of the books have been freely made available for us to see – books that nobody would ever get to see normally – that’s been wonderful.
Paul Gumn Chairman in 1996
