John McTague
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johnjoemctague.bsky.social
John McTague
@johnjoemctague.bsky.social
1.4K followers 1.6K following 53 posts
Assistant Prof in C18th Studies, Univ. Bristol. Book: ‘Things that Didn’t Happen’ (2019). Co-director @ Bristol Common Press (www.instagram.com/bristolcommonpress). Co-President of Bristol UCU branch. 🎸&🎤 in Autocorrect (https://spoti.fi/4fIaTAJ). He/him.
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johnjoemctague.bsky.social
Beautiful day for a picket with #UCU members in the Centre for Academic Language and Development, 45 of whom have been put at risk of compulsory redundancy. This is the first of TWENTY ONE days of strike action voted for by these members.
A UCU picket line in front of a glass fronted building. People are standing and talking to one another, holding placards reading ’No Compulsory Redundancies’. A more oblique camera angle showing the same UCU picket line in front of a glass fronted building. People are standing and talking to one another, holding placards reading ’No Compulsory Redundancies’.
July 9, 2025 at 8:31 AM
johnjoemctague.bsky.social
Bristol Common Press is ready to peddle at the @srsrensoc.bsky.social conference. We are printing two issues of the Bristol Mercury, the conference’s very own newspaper, and delegates can get involved by having a go at printing issues & submitting notices for inclusion in issue 2. Come find us!
A table containing various items printed at bristol common press for sale. A picture of The Bristol Mercury, a single sheet newspaper printed at bristol common press Two printed items, The Prayer of Jonas and an early modern ‘indulgence’ in Latin Two posters with the text ‘Book history for printers, printing for book historians: Bristol Common Press’
July 2, 2025 at 2:16 PM
johnjoemctague.bsky.social
A good couple of days work in the print shop at the end of this week.
Printed sheets in octavo format hung up to dry in a print shop. 4 sheets are cisible, the camera focussed on the ornamental title page in the background. The title, ‘four sheets to the wind,’ is legible, and there is a linocut engraving of a pile of books beneath it. Another view of a printed sheet, with a second typeset title page visible. A wooden replica eighteenth-century common press is in the background. The camera focusses on a sheet hanging on a line, visible between the blurred edges of two sheets hanging on a dofferent line in the foreground. 6 of the 8 octavo pages are partially visible. A printed sheet in octavo format still attached to the tympan of a replica eighteenth-century common press
November 30, 2024 at 6:17 AM
johnjoemctague.bsky.social
On the plus side yesterday I think I cracked paper dampening and inking levels. On the other hand, now the end matter of the book looks nicer than the main text!
Half a sheet of letterpress-printed text is in the foreground, top right. It’s hanging from a drying line in front of a replica eighteenth-century wooden printing press, which is out of focus. On the side of the sheet visible there is the front and reverse of a ‘colophon,’ the text of which is set in an inverse triangle in an attempt to mimic the colophons of early Italian printed books.
November 22, 2024 at 6:20 AM
johnjoemctague.bsky.social
Three pages of metal type (Bembo 12 point) and one full page linocut locked up on the bed of a replica 18th century common press in quarto format. Light rakes across the type diagonally from the low autumn afternoon sun.
November 16, 2024 at 8:18 AM
johnjoemctague.bsky.social
We’re lucky to have some splendid linocuts by our collaborator Victoria Barton of Press Genepy (www.instagram.com/press.genepy). This is Benjamin Franklin showing off by carrying formes of locked up type in each hand, instead of one at a time like the British Weaklings he worked with
A linocut showing Benjamin Franklin holding a locked up forme of metal type in each hand A picture of the printed sheet in which the linocut appears, showing the top half of the linocut and half of a page of text.
November 14, 2024 at 10:29 AM
johnjoemctague.bsky.social
Our dog Judy x Francis Bacon. Photo credit: our excellent dogsitter, Liv.
A photo of a Vizsla x Cocker Spaniel called Judy, rolling on the floor on some grass next to a stick which she has presumably chewed into oblivion, at a velocity sufficient to mKe her blurred. More high speed rolling: Judy strikes a different posture, her head thrust at right angles to her front paws. The rolling continues, in this one she os on her back and her tail is sticking straight up: it’s also blurred. This one is so blurred it looks like a gen-AI image gone wrong, and a little bit like her head has been drastically shrunk, which was thankfully not the case.
November 12, 2024 at 6:31 AM
johnjoemctague.bsky.social
We at Bristol Common Press (www.instagram.com/bristolcommonpress) are making a book with some friends. Here are some proofs of the title page. My question to you is: should we have the horizontal rule at the top as well as the middle, or just one?
A proof of a title page for a book-in-progress called ‘Four Sheets to the Wind’. It’s in an eighteenth-century style (or is attempting to be!). This version has no rule at the top. This version has a rule at the top of the page.
November 11, 2024 at 8:08 PM
johnjoemctague.bsky.social
Whoops, mixed up my denominators and numerators. Corrected here (difference is a few tenths of a percent at most, thankfully): range is 4.7% to 1.78%
Screenshot of a spreadsheet demonstrating that, because of the way it is being implemented in two stages, the UCEA pay offer for 24/25 is worth between 4.7% and 1.78% to staff, not the 5.5 and 2.5 percent referred to in comms.
September 18, 2024 at 10:09 AM
johnjoemctague.bsky.social
Indeed, according to my working the offer ranges from an effective 4.48% at spine point 9 (where Bristol pay spine starts) to 1.75% at point 52. Despite receiving a larger percentage point lift, those at the bottom of the pay spine are proportionally more shafted by the delaying of full uplift.
Screenshot of a spreadsheet demonstrating that, because of the way it is being implemented in two stages, the UCEA pay offer for 24/25 is worth between 4.48% and 1.75% to staff, not the 5.5 and 2.5 percent referred to in comms.
September 17, 2024 at 2:51 PM