Latest News
The 200+ Club Winners
April 2010 May 2010 June 2010
D G Osborne M Topper Mrs B Hempenstall
R A Boxall Mrs G Allan Mrs E Charnock
J F Dickinson Mrs R J Hodgson C F J Petyt
Mrs T Randall P J Homewood J Binnie
S B Duncan R J Pooley G Baker
G Fisher
July 2010 August 2010
Mrs J Hodgson J D Ryman
C D Jakes M A Clark
Mrs J Taylor P D M Gell
Mrs C A Dische T Binnie
Mrs E M Johnson Mrs C Haslam
Congratulations to all the winners!
Fire at Stationers' Hall - Information for Hall Hire
Although the south-western corner of the Hall has suffered some scorching damage to the wall and ceiling and the oak screen has been quite badly burnt, the Hall is now re-open for business as usual. The other state rooms, the kitchens and the garden are completely unaffected by the incident and professional cleaners have done a fantastic job removing all traces of smoke contamination throughout the building.
We will be open throughout July and will then close as usual during August for our annual maintenance programme. During this period, we plan to replace the damaged section of the screen with a temporary structure and completely redecorate the Hall. We will reopen for business as planned on 4 September.
Those who have booked events for July, or still plan to do so, are welcome to come and have a look. If you would like to do so, please contact Susana de Sousa, our Commercial Manager, by email at marketing@stationers.org or by clicking here.
Disruption is being kept to a minimum thanks to rapid action by Stationers’ staff. The Master, Richard Brewster, explained: “Everyone responded magnificently. The staff worked through the night and the Clerk quickly brought in professional clean-up contractors. As a result we were able to honour a booking on Thursday evening in the Garden and the Court Room.”
The Hall itself is expected to be open for business again less than a week after the accident, when the contractors have completed their preliminary repairs and cleaning work. More complex renovation will be carried out during the summer break and some work will be held over to the summer of 2011.
One useful lesson from the incident: the value of the Stationers’ website in communicating with members of the Company. The Master said: “In these situations communication is vital but nobody has time to make lots of phone calls or send emails. Instead the website can do a very efficient job. We want to encourage Stationers to log on regularly to check the Clerk's Blog and other dynamic pages on the website.”
Surprise Guests as the Court Says Thank You to Denzil Sharp
There were two surprise guests at this year's Court Spring Dinner on 18 May. The Court used the occasion to say thank you to Denzil Sharp, who served the Company magnificently as Clerk from 1996 to March this year. Denzil and his partner, Caroline Whitlock, were guests of honour at the dinner but he was not expecting to to be joined by his daughter, Gemma, and his son Jasper, especially as Jasper had flown in from Austria to be there. The Master, Richard Brewster, presented Denzil with an Edwardian silver bowl as a token of the huge gratitude owed by all members of the Company. Below is a photograph of the Master with Gemma, Caroline, Denzil and Jasper in the garden at Stationers' Hall before the dinner.
Special Guest at our Richard Johnson Service and Lunch
Father Gwyn Clement, Vicar of Hendon St Mary Parish Church, will be the Company's guest at the Richard Johnson Service on 1 June and at the lunch afterwards. Hendon St Mary's is the location of the grave of Richard Johnson and Father Gwyn has been assiduously looking after the grave for the past few years. Past Master Jonathan Straker checked the grave a few weeks ago and reported that it was in good condition.The Company is very grateful to Father Gwyn for his care and is delighted that he has accepted our invitation to attend this year's celebration.
When Liveryman Richard Johnson died in 1795, he left his money to the Company on the condition that we celebrate the anniversary of the death of his father by attending a service at Hendon Church and hearing a sermon preached on the subject, 'Vita humana bulla est' ('human life is a bubble'). The service has now been moved to St Bride's Church in Fleet Street but the theme of the sermon remains the same. It is one of the principal events in the Company's calendar. Below is a picture of Father Gwyn Clement standing by the grave of Richard Johnson and his father.
New Date for Digital Media Group Roundtable Event
A new date has been set for the Digital Media Group (DMG) event which was originally scheduled for 4 May but had to be cancelled due to the illness of the speaker.
The Roundtable event will now take place on Tuesday, 22 June at 7 pm in Stationers' Hall.
Following the theme of the last meeting, Alex Hardy of the Orion Publishing Group will lead a discussion on online copyright infringement in the publishing, music and computer games industries. Joining Alex will be two exciting experts in the field. Simon Chapman is a partner at Lewis Silkin LLP, specialising in the protection and enforcement of IP. Nicholas Lovell is the founder and director of Gamesbrief, a company providing financial and strategic advice to the digital media industry.
Together they have masses of experience of how clients have successfully combated online piracy by coming up with creative solutions and by changing their business models. This is a real opportunity for all of us in publishing to learn from the experiences of the music and computer games industries in this vitally important but challenging area.
This event is open to everyone and non-members are particularly welcome. To book tickets, please email Ian Bennett at ian.bennett@mediasystems.co.uk. More information on the DMG is available on their website here.
Marking 300 Years of Copyright
The 300th anniversary of the first legislation protecting intellectual property, the Statute of Anne enacted in April 2010, has been marked by the Stationers’ Company with the launch of a website, www.copyright-debate.co.uk. The site puts into the public domain an important collection of papers which set out the arguments around copyright and explain why the protection of intellectual property is still so critical to a successful creative economy. In the autumn the Company will be publishing a collection of the works through Wildy and Son, the legal publishers, and the papers will also form the basis for two events at Stationers’ Hall on Monday, 8 November: an academic conference organised by University College, London, and an Evening Forum. Both events will be open to the public and full details, including booking online, will be included in the Events section of this site nearer the time.
Inter-Livery 10 Pin Bowling Competition
The Worshipful Company of Basketmakers are organising the first ever Inter-Livery 10 Pin Bowling Competition, taking place on Wednesday 13 July at the Kingpin Suite, Tavistock Hotel, Bedford Way, London WC1H 9EU. This state of the art facility offers five bowling lanes together with a private bar, pool table, pinball machines and other games. The evening will commence with registration at 6.00pm and the first round of bowling at 6.30 pm. The second round will take place at 7.30 pm and then there will be an opportunity for anyone to try their luck after the competition, up to 10 pm. During the evening there will be a cold fork buffet served and the cash bar will remain open during the evening. Contact the Clockmakers’ Clerk, (email: clerk@basketmakersco.org) for further information. All profits will go to the Lord Mayor’s Charity Appeal. If you would like to organise a Stationers' Company team, please email Helen Ashworth at events@stationers.org.
Clerk's Blog
Members of the Company now have access to the regular musings of the Clerk through the recently launched Clerk's Blog. This is accessible from the Members Only section of this website. Click on the link on the left-hand side of the opening page in this section. Members are welcome, and indeed encouraged, to leave comments or ask questions on the blog. This is an exciting new addition to the website and will help members keep completely up to date with what's happening in the Company.
RNIB Auction of Dreams Now Live!
Linked to the Mid Summer Night's Dream Gala Event on 21 June 2010, the Auction of Dreams in aid of the RNIB's Talking Books scheme is now up and running and waiting for your bids. We have a wide range of wonderful pledges on auction and there is certain to be something there that takes your fancy. All proceeds go to this very good cause, which is the Master's charity for this year. You can access the auction website from a link on our homepage or from here. Please visit the website and place your bids.
The 200+ Club - Winners 2010
January 2010 February 2010 March 2010
John Paine Edwin Boorman John Moon
Thomas Binnie Judith Osborne Michael Passmore
Marian Mountford Geoffrey Baker Kenneth Pardey
Geoffrey Dische Michael Brady Gordon Robson
John Ward Jennifer Gleeson Paul Anderson
Congratulations to all the winners!
"Books will live – Thanks to digitisation”
As Google, creator of the 4th biggest library in the US, scans as many of the world’s books as possible, making them available online, this is their confident prediction.
Describing their approach as comprehensive rather than commercial, Santiago De la Mora of Google UK said “there was a reader for every single book”. Yet thousands of library books were never read as no one knew they were there. Digitising books allows everyone in the world access, including the poorest readers. Asked about the threat from electronic books and e-readers, he said “these were a complement to print, serving different needs such as portability for travellers”.
Denying author’s rights as under attack, he declared authors had more chance of earning royalties and that copyright was a strong as ever. Google would never show a single page of a book without permission from the copyright holder.
Santiago de la Mora was being interviewed at Stationers’ Hall at a meeting of the Digital Media Group of the Stationers’ Company and jointly hosted with the Information Technologists’ Company on 28 January 2010.
