On publication in 1989 this book was celebrated chiefly for its exposé of Gill's outrageous private life. But MacCarthy is a perspicacious authority on modern design and the book is a wonderful analysis of the 'integrationist' principles which informed Gill's development from calligrapher to stone-carver, including his type-face designs which Stanley Morrison, no less, judged to include the finest capitals (Perpetua titling) designed since the sixteenth century. A long book - challenging but never dull.
(Michael Fitzgerald-Lombard - bwl 43 December 2007) |
