My friend Andrew Judd, who has died aged 76, was an exemplary letterpress printer, binder and artist. His love of literature, particularly poetry, resulted in distinctive limited edition books, as well as linocuts, pamphlets and ephemera. He established a studio in his back garden in Malvern, Worcestershire, and christened it Belmont Hall; the name was used on publications that are noted for their strong typography and Andrew’s evocative illustrations.
Andrew exhibited paintings and linocuts before turning to printing in 2011, working with a Ludlow typograph, on which the type was cast, and an AutoVic platen press. He produced editions in collaboration with the poet Philip Sharpe, but Andrew’s admiration for Thomas Traherne, Herefordshire’s 17th-century mystic poet, led to his magnum opus, a series of volumes reprinting the sections of Traherne’s Centuries of Meditations.
These were embellished by Andrew’s lyrical linocuts of his native landscape, many drawn from the Malvern Hills region. He had an affection for pastoral England that made him an ideal publisher of Edward Thomas and Richard Jefferies, among other writers.
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