Lyra's Books

Lyra's Books Bookbinder and fine press publisher Richard continues to work at Ludlow as a binder, though most of his time is now dedicated to Lyra’s Books. A perfect fit!

Lyra’s Books began as a side project for bookbinder Richard Tong around 2015, where he could experiment with one-off rebinds and different binding styles and techniques. This creative exploration eventually led to him winning the prestigious Elizabeth Soutar Award for his binding of 'American Gods' by Neil Gaiman. Following the success of our first publishing venture, 'Stardust', Lyra’s has grown from a small side project into a small, fine press publishing house. There are now two imprints under the umbrella of Lyra’s Books Ltd: Lyra’s Press and Lyra’s Classics.

- Lyra’s Press focuses on contemporary works

- Lyra’s Classics publishes titles in the public domain

All books published are illustrated, hand-bound, and produced in small, limited editions. For more information on our books and imprints, visit: www.lyrasbooks.com

Richard trained as a hand bookbinder under master binder Brian Settle (of Smith Settle and The Fine Bindery), and later with master bookbinder Philip Parkins, who is now the bindery manager at Ludlow Bookbinders. For those wondering — Lyra’s Books is named after Richard’s feline friend, Lyra, who was in turn named after Lyra Belacqua from Philip Pullman’s 'His Dark Materials', one of Richard’s favourite stories. The three books Lyra is sitting on in the company logo represent that connection.

Here’s a little photo preview of our Numbered edition of CARMILLA by J. Sheridan Le Fanu. Full details, including exact ...
15/09/2026

Here’s a little photo preview of our Numbered edition of CARMILLA by J. Sheridan Le Fanu. Full details, including exact sales dates and pricing, will be coming at the end of the month with the sale to follow in mid-October.

Illustrated by Hugo Award-winning artist Abigail Larson, with a new afterword by Professor Roger Luckhurst.

Limited to 275 hand-bound copies.

Letterpress printed by Hand & Eye Letterpress, London.

This edition is hand-bound by us in an unusual coffin shaped, quarter black goatskin leather binding, with black foil-blocked cracks across the surface. The paste papers on the front and back boards are designed and produced by the amazing Victoria Hall, who created our suminagashi papers for Don’t Look Now.

There are hand-tooled border creases running down the edges of the leather, and the title is foil blocked in grey to the spine.

The slipcase is covered in Corvon, a sturdy paper material which mimics the look and feel of real stone. The front is foil blocked in black, with a double-layered label above, made from paste paper and Corvon. The slipcase is lined with soft red suedel.

The binding design is inspired by the moment in the book when the vampire is discovered in her tomb, lying in a coffin submerged in blood. The paste papers reference the blood, as well as the rich drapery that appears in many of Abigail’s illustrations.

The text pages are set in Baskerville and Open Kapitalen and printed letterpress on Heritage Bookwhite 160gsm. All illustrations are tipped in as plates onto black Hahnemühle Bugra Butten mouldmade paper.

Abigail has provided thirteen colour illustrations, plus a frontispiece.

This edition is signed by the artist and afterword contributor.

A reminder that with this release, we will be adding an extra 50 Rights copies to the Numbered edition of Lyra's Classics titles. This means that 200 of the 275 copies will carry rights to the next Classics title. The other 75 will be non-rights copies.

More information on this title is to come and we will share the photos of the Lettered edition soon!

Full details will be released on our website at the end of the month.

Thank you!

Rich

Hi guys, apologies for the radio silence recently. I've had a lot of catching up to do after finishing Don't Look Now!Bu...
04/09/2026

Hi guys, apologies for the radio silence recently. I've had a lot of catching up to do after finishing Don't Look Now!

But, it’s finally time to start sharing some of the details for our edition of CARMILLA by J. Sheridan Le Fanu. We will be doing the sale for this one in mid-October, with full edition details, sales dates and pricing coming by the end of this month.

First published in 1871-1872, Carmilla is one of the great works of Gothic fiction and a hugely important piece of vampire literature, predating Dracula by twenty-five years. It tells the story of Laura and the beautiful, mysterious Carmilla, whose arrival at Laura’s home sets in motion a strange and increasingly disturbing chain of events.

This title will be published under the Lyra's Classics imprint and limited to 275 Numbered and 26 Lettered copies.

We have been working with Hugo award-winning artist Abigail Larson on this edition who has produced fourteen lush illustrations, including a frontispiece. All fourteen artworks will be tipped in as plates, with all except the frontispiece tipped in onto different coloured paper stock from the text pages. We also have an afterword from Professor Roger Luckhurst, the Geoffrey Tillotson Chair of Nineteenth Century Studies at Birkbeck, University of London.

I’ve tried to carry some of the rich darkness and atmosphere of Abigail’s artwork into the binding designs, but more on that later!

Over the next few weeks, I will be sharing more images of Abigail's artwork, along with photos and info on the bindings before we update the website with full details at the end of September.

For now here’s a few of Abigail's images to whet your appetites!

Lots more to come!

I’m having a lovely Friday folding the pages that make up the extraordinary “cut out” section of Brave New World by Aret...
07/08/2026

I’m having a lovely Friday folding the pages that make up the extraordinary “cut out” section of Brave New World by Areté Editions.

This book is astounding. I can’t wait for people to see it when it’s finished.

Art by Allen Jones.

Hi everyone,We’re now a good chunk of the way through shipping Don’t Look Now, with all Lettered editions on the way or ...
17/07/2026

Hi everyone,

We’re now a good chunk of the way through shipping Don’t Look Now, with all Lettered editions on the way or already delivered. Numbered editions are starting to arrive too.

I think we will be done by Tuesday probably (hopefully!). It’s a bit slow going as the courier can only fit so many parcels in the van each day!

If you haven’t received a shipping notification email yet, don’t panic. Like I said, the remaining copies will be on their way early next week. The email will contain the tracking details and name of the courier and will come from InXpress (the shipping logistics company we use to organise everything).

Any shipping queries can be directed to Emma Gibbons, who is the Ludlow Bookbinders office manager. She is co-ordinating everything and her contact details will be found in the tracking email. Here it is again anyway, just in case - [email protected]

I forgot to mention to the Lettered customers that there is an extra layer in the box, with the portfolio underneath the book so please check there if you haven’t already found it!

Have a lovely weekend and thanks once again for your patience!

(Below is my amateur dawn photo of the Basilica di San Marco! Here you can see part of the flagstone pattern that appears on the Lettered edition portfolio 🙂)

After delays of various kinds, that’s the first batch of Don’t Look Now wrapped up and ready to go. We will start shippi...
08/07/2026

After delays of various kinds, that’s the first batch of Don’t Look Now wrapped up and ready to go. We will start shipping early next week.

Recently, I sent an email to customers asking about any changes of address or if anyone needs to postpone delivery. If you still need to respond to this, please do so as soon as possible using the link in the email. Alternatively, send me an email at [email protected]

After this is all over, on to Carmilla! I expect to do the sale for that in the early part of August. Hopefully the heat will be a little more bearable by then!

Thanks!

Areté Editions are taking orders from their Patron rights holders until 5pm BST (UK time) today for their latest release...
31/05/2026

Areté Editions are taking orders from their Patron rights holders until 5pm BST (UK time) today for their latest release of Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees. All rights holders will have received an email with a purchase link, so check your inboxes (including spam folders) if you’re expecting one of those.

The public pre-order goes live on their website 2 June.
www.arete-editions.com

This title is limited to Numbered and Lettered editions only and contains over 40 incredible artworks by Scott McKowen. Bindings designed by myself and Scott, using historic paper marbling patterns by Payhembury, UK.

If you have any questions about the sale, please contact Arete Editions directly

Just a couple more stacks of books to complete and that’s the Numbered edition of Don’t Look Now finished. We’re in the ...
29/05/2026

Just a couple more stacks of books to complete and that’s the Numbered edition of Don’t Look Now finished.

We’re in the final stages of binding the Lettered edition at the moment and when that is done we will start the process of packing and shipping. All of our boxes and foam arrived earlier in the week, so we’re all set! Hopefully all will be finished in the next couple of weeks so I’ll be sending out “have you moved emails” at some point next week.

Thanks for your patience and have a great weekend!

Happy Friday everyone! Here's a few pics of Don't Look Now in the bindery. All book blocks are now trimmed, dressed and ...
15/05/2026

Happy Friday everyone! Here's a few pics of Don't Look Now in the bindery.

All book blocks are now trimmed, dressed and prepped and are being 'cased in'. You can see we now have some stacks of (nearly) completed books for the Numbered edition. These books still need the second, leather label to be affixed to the front board. The first, red paper label is already affixed. There are also about 15 pages in each book that need cutting down to tabs inside.

The red solander box trays are all covered and are being stuck into the blue cases. The only thing left to do with them is to affix the leather labels to the spines. We foil blocked the labels last week, which was about 700 passes of blocking.

For the Lettered edition - all chemises are made and foil blocked. The portfolios are currently being foil blocked and then need lining with the pockets. The books themselves are pretty much finished, so all we need to do then is make the solander boxes.

We're getting there!

Have a lovely weekend!! :)

From Paulo himself 🧡
15/04/2026

From Paulo himself 🧡

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Lower Barns Business Park
Ludlow
SY84DS

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Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

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