River names

Since we’re still enjoying the effects of The lovely blue, I thought a cool dip into the river would be appropriate. River names is another double-sided elephant book, the text from Geoffrey Grigson’s wonderful Shell Country Alphabet, just reissued in a retro-ish cover – but we’ve got a battered original. The text is set to reflect both the meandering flow of the rivers and the spiralling-cyclic form of the book, torn and folded from one sheet of handmade paper – and it begins on the cover: 

River names… include some of the more ancient names on the map…

The text continues on the other side:

Obvious rivery qualities have given rivers their names…

I so much enjoy the inconsequential, restrained poetry of this text. The sheet of paper, torn and folded, looks like this:

There are lots more One Elephant books in Bookworks, and in previous Work in focus posts (Shelley’s Cloud,  Bank Holiday weekend clouds) – and there will be more to come soon. For information on any work, leave me a note in the comment box below, or click on contact details.