"But where do books come from?" said the Child • 13 February 2007 • The SnowBlog

"But where do books come from?" said the Child

          

From Reading, said the Publisher. Emma and I went on a visit to one of our printers, Cox & Wyman, last week. Apologies for only taking a few rubbish photos with my mobile phone.

Above is one of the final conveyor belts, where completed books are stacked and packed ready to be sent out. Below is an earlier stage - printed unbound sheets coming out of the immense web printer, which is fed by rolls of paper over a metre across (the photo of which shows only my thumb, unfortunately).



This is the binding line, where collated sheafs of the above go into the machine on the right, are mated with covers coming in the other end, and shoot out on the left to dry:



Apologies for such rubbish photos. Will try harder next time.

The actual printers is an awe-inspiring place for a book-lover - the production line is an extraordinary combination of high-tech processes and almost Heath Robinson-esque gadgets, such as the little mechanical arms that poke books into the right place on the conveyor belts.



Ah, lovely books. Lots of lovely books.