About the workshops
James Freemantle, the Bodleian Printer in Residence 2025–26, will lead workshops creating a birdwatcher’s notebook based on John J. Audubon’s Birds of America.
Each workshop in this series enables participants to see and contribute to the stages of production of a book by hand: typesetting, illustration, and binding. With help from workshop participants, James Freemantle will produce an observational notebook to record sightings of birds, incorporating details from John J. Audubon’s Birds of America. The book will record so-called ‘vagrant birds,’ those sighted outside their normal range.
We will be running four workshops. Each will be different, and you are invited to sign up for one or several. The activities in each workshop will depend upon the progress of the project, and will include setting type, printing, and sewing the book.
Workshop dates
| Monday 19 January 2026, 11.00 – 13.00 |
| Monday 19 January 2026, 14.00 – 16.00 |
| Sunday 1 March 2026, 11.00 – 13.00 |
| Sunday 1 March 2026, 14.00 – 16.00 |
Speaker
James Freemantle is proprietor of the St James Park Press, established in 2014. All editions from the St James Park Press are printed by hand, and these include George Orwell’s works, 1984 and Animal Farm; An Albion in the Antarctic; The Beauty of Byrne, about Oliver Byrne’s edition of Euclid; and the forthcoming Paradise Lost.
Event information
- Tickets are £20 per workshop.
- The workshops will take place in person in the printing workshop in the Schola Musicae in in the Bodleian Old Library. How to get here.
- All venues for this event are wheelchair accessible. More about accessibility at our site.
