A Boy at the Hogarth Press Book

After a rather unsuccessful education at Marlborough College, in 1926 sixteen-year-old Richard Kennedy was put firmly under the wing of Leonard Woolf as his new protegee at the Woolfs' printing press. Responsible for making tea, packing boxes and a host of other menial tasks, Kennedy observed unnoticed the social milieu of the sophisticated Bloomsbury set as it revolved around the Hogarth Press. Some forty years later, and by then a professional illustrator, he put pen to paper, recalling his time with Virginia and Leonard Woolf in candid and often hilarious detail. He tells of the success that Virginia enjoyed ('There is much talk of Mrs W's new book Orlando and plenty of tension'), of their chaotic office with its collapsing shelves, rats and arguments over toilet paper, and of his own often hapless attempts to keep pace with the literary giants around him. Illustrated throughout with Kennedy's own sketches, this is a delightful work that offers a unique peep into the Bloomsbury set.Read More