Benjamin Maggs

Private press, illustration and fine binding.

Having once harboured dreams of being an archaeologist, then a chef (and still holding out hope for a future as a professional cyclist), it was a midnight conversation with my Dad around the kitchen table after finishing my final shift in the Contented Sole (once the 'Best Small Restaurant in Essex') which finally led me to join the family business. I am the sixth generation of the Maggs family to work in the business, and it is a profound privilege to be able to do so.

I hold a master's degree in book history from the Institute of English Studies at the University of London, where I wrote my thesis on the materiality of the book in the digital age. My professional interests are in finely and privately printed books, in particular the insights which the process of production give us to the mind of the individual maker. I am interested more widely in all processes of printing and illustration, as well as bookbinding.

I have a small collection of early cycling books, and blog at www.velobiblio.com.

ben@maggs.com