Behind every great man…
Brief Candles is a short dramatical work in the verse tradition. It was written by Laurence Binyon and published by The Golden Cockerel Press in 1938 in two states: a limited edition of 100 copies and an unlimited edition. Here I’ll be looking at the limited edition.
At 140x114mm and just 51 pages, this is a modest volume by almost any standard. One therefore has the sense that the ostentatious cloth of gold binding is supposed to compensate for the book’s diminutive stature. At first glance it can appear quite dull, but let that cloth of gold catch the light and—fire! The title is stamped in gold on the spine over a printed blue background. The book was bound at Sangorski and Sutcliffe, London, and is stamped to this effect on the front pastedown. It is printed on sheets of Arnold’s handmade paper whose top edge is gilded. There’s also a powder blue ribbon marker. Overall, like most Golden Cockerel books I have, this one feels a bit rough and unrefined, but is all the more charming for it.
Briefly, the unlimited edition had a purple cloth binding with a yellow dust jacket and was printed on machine-made paper.
Inside, we find the text is Caslon’s Old Face in 11pt. This is a sensible size of type for a book of these dimensions, but it’s hard not to feel that an octavo-sized page with a correspondingly larger fount and additional leading would have made for a more luxurious presentation. There are six engravings by Helen Binyon (daughter of the author and respected artist in her own right). These include a title page vignette and five others that occupy a half or a full page. These images effectively illustrate the story in a suitably dark fashion.
The book’s 51 pages are split roughly in half. The first 20 pages contain a preface by the author. Binyon recounts the genesis of this project and the historical research underlying the work. The rest of the book is given to the play itself. It’s a new and somewhat novel retelling of an episode from Richard III’s rise to power, mostly through the eyes of Richard’s mother, Cecily. Cecily is here given a scheming persona and, like Lady Macbeth before her, sees a path to power through manipulation of a weak-willed man. Richard III’s crimes, it is implied, are the result of his mother’s machinations. It’s a short work that would probably amount to one or two scenes from a full-length play. The play is constructed in verse, lending it obvious echoes of Shakespeare’s Richard III, an antecedent and inspiration that is acknowledged in the author’s preface.
The book ends with a colophon page that is signed by both the author and the illustrator. The colophon reads as follows:
Printed at the Golden Cockerel Press, Roll’s Passage, London. The Edition is limited to 100 signed & numbered copies printed in Caslon’s Old Face type on hand-made paper. No. <hand numbered> (There will also be an unlimited edition.) <signed by both author and artist>.
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Where to buy
You can search for this edition on
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Or browse more generally for Golden Cockerel Press books at
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Being limited to only 100 copies, the limited edition shown above is relatively scarce. But the unlimited edition is normally readily available on the secondary market.
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A few brief notes on the Golden Cockerel Press
The Golden Cockerel Press was a British private press based in Waltham St Lawrence near Reading, Berkshire. It went through four ownership regimes: founded by Hal Taylor in 1920, purchased by Robert Gibbings in 1924, taken over by Christopher Sandford in 1933, and finally wound up by Thomas Yoseloff who bought the press in 1959. It was Gibbings that built the press’ reputation for featuring some of the top engravers of the day (Eric Ravillious, Eric Gill, John Nash, Gibbings himself), while Sandford modernised operations and broadened the scope of the press’ output. Under Sandford’s leadership the press largely ceased printing its own books and relocated production to The Chiswick Press (owned by one of Sandford’s business partners), at which point Golden Cockerel ceased to be a private press in the strictest sense. But, Sandford also managed to expand the rate at which the press was able to produce books (despite the war’s interference). All four owners actively sought new material to print, often from unknown authors, and printed relatively few “classics”. This makes the press’ output occasionally esoteric (and its literary quality quite variable). The complete bibliography is documented in four volumes: Chanticleer, Pertelote, Cockalorum, and Cock-a-Hoop.
Highlights of the press’ output include works lavishly illustrated by Eric Gill (The Four Gospels, The Canterbury Tales, Troilus and Criseyde), an edition of Twelfth Night illustrated by Eric Ravilious, and Gibbing’s crowning achievement, The Glory of Life. The press also occasionally printed books on behalf of other publishers, most notably Le Morte d’Arthur for The Limited Editions Club.
A full history of the press can be found in A History of the Golden Cockerel Press 1920–1960 by Roderick Cave and Sarah Manson.
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