The Original and Growth of Printing
together with
A Vindication of the Life of Richard Atkyns Esquire
Richard Atkyns
Richard Atkyns was an officer in the Royalist forces during the English Civil War. His Vindication contains fascinating eye-witness accounts of the battles in which he fought. Atkyns also held a patent for printing law books. His legal battles with the Stationers' Company prompted him to publish the Original and Growth, an early and rather fanciful history of printing in England.
Published 3 January 2013 168pp Pbk List Price £9.99 ISBN 978-1-904799-53-5
An Apology for the Life of Major General Gunning
John Gunning, edited and annotated by Gerrish Gray
Mentioned in despatches at Bunker Hill, brother to the Duchess of Argyll and the Countess of Coventry, Major General John Gunning occupied an enviable position in Georgian society, but in 1792 his whole life started to unravel…
The Apology, published in 1792, gives a first-hand account of General Gunning's many seductions (including apparently 2 duchesses, 14 countesses, 4 viscountesses and 7 baronesses) and purports to explain the so-called ‘Gunning Mystery,’ the authorship of forged love letters between his daughter Elizabeth and the Marquess of Blandford. It also tells how the General, described by Lord Kenyon as ‘an hoary, abominable, degraded creature,’ betrayed the man who had rescued him from a debtors' prison by seducing his wife. But is the Apology itself a forgery? Although there are indications that it may be, this memoir displays an extremely good understanding of the Gunnings, perhaps too good to be the work of an outsider.
In this new, annotated edition, Gerrish Gray unearths prosecutions for other forgeries (and capital offences at that) perpetrated by one of the suspects in the Gunning Mystery. He suggests that these may point to the true culprit.
Publication October 2012 120pp Hbk List Price £14.99 ISBN 978-1-904799-46-7
Publication November 2012 120pp Pbk List Price £8.99 ISBN 978-1-904799-49-8