Bookshapers

In which Anna and Judith travel back to a world of secrets in Victorian London. Expect multiplatform publishing, debates about access to knowledge, a found-poem performance and a marvellous trick. When Angelo Lewis writes a book about his boyhood love, some readers are so outraged they wish him dead... CONNECT WITH ANNA & JUDITH Find more information and images at the Bookshapers website. Follow Bookshapers on Instagram. USEFUL LINKS Explore a copy of 'Modern Magic' at the I...

In which Anna and Judith travel back to the degenerate world of Eighteenth-century London. Expect user-focused content and design, a performance in rhyming verse and a dash of gin. When Elizabeth Blackwell's husband ends up in a debtor's prison, she thinks writing and illustrating her own book will save the day, but it's a mammoth task. CONNECT WITH ANNA & JUDITH Find more information and images at the Bookshapers website. Follow Bookshapers on Instagram. Follow Bookshapers on Twitter....

In which Anna and Judith uncover a publishing innovation that promised to spark a revolution - but didn't. Expect the spectre of automation, invisible women, union disputes, rock-star pianists and a new take on the sound of typesetting. The Anatomy of Sleep was the first book ever typeset by machine. By the time of the second edition, it was set by hand. Today, the machine that made it is virtually unknown. So what happened? CONNECT WITH ANNA & JUDITH Find more information and images at...

In which Anna and Judith travel to Antarctica to embark on the greatest possible adventure: publishing a book! Expect cold, dark and dismal weather, the printing press from hell and the stench of seal blubber - all wrapped up in tasty petit-pois endpapers. Aurora Australis was the first book ever written, printed and bound in Antarctica. This rare collection of fact, fiction and poetry was self-published in 1908, at Shackleton's hut in Cape Royds. CONNECT WITH ANNA & JUDITH Find more in...

We discover an elegant Victorian machine, which promised to revolutionise typography and literature. But why has no-one heard of it? FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THIS TOPIC You can view the 1842 edition of 'The Anatomy of Sleep' by Dr Edward Binns online at the Internet Archive. You can see pictures of the Pianotype machine in Anna's blog post for Wellcome Collection (now archived by Archive-it). EPISODE CREDITS: Background music: La Campanella. Compos...