READ: Eco Books by Terry Taylor

Subtitled: Inventive Projects from the Recycling Bin, Taylor has assembled over 40 projects using materials such as junk mail, cereal boxes, luggage tags, dental floss containers and other objects we usually just throw into the recycle bin. Projects combine these cast-off materials with traditional bookmaking techniques and structures, including accordion fold, sewing over tapes, long stitch, and others.

Easy to follow instructions accompany detailed drawings, and several templates are included, as well as examples of works by well-known book artists. A great companion book to Jeannine Stein’s re-bound (below). So, don’t toss out those egg cartons! Make a book!

READ: Memoirs of a British Agent by R.H. Bruce Lockhart

One of the more fascinating characters in the British Foreign Service was R.H. Bruce Lockhart. Stationed in Russia at the turn of the twentieth century, he knew everyone of consequence, from writers like and artists, Tsarist loyalists and revolutionaries of all political persuasions. His autobiography, published in 1932, made him an instant celebrity.

He became well acquainted with Sidney Reilly, the (presumed) model for Ian Fleming’s literary character James Bond. Bruce Lockhart and Reilly were arrested, tried and sentenced to death for a plot to assassinate V.I. Lenin. Reilly was executed, but Bruce Lockhart was saved through an exchange of prisoners, supposed Russian spies being held in Great Britain.

The tone of this autobiography is friendly and unassuming, especially considering the cast of real-life characters swirling around its pages – Hugh Walpole, Leon Trotsky, Feodor Chaliapin, Maxim Gorky, Tsar Nicholas II, Arthur Ransome, and Prince Lvov, to name just a few. Now out of print, copies of the 2003 Folio Society edition are available from online booksellers. It’s well worth the tracking down for an exciting and enjoyable time experiencing the secret world before easy mass communication immediately let us all know the latest news from the secret world.