Simon Garfield

The classic elegant English typeface, still widely used as a book text more than 250 years after its creation.

Baskerville is a transitional design, poised between the first metal types and modern styles, notable for its combination of fat and thin letters. When it was first used there was genuine concern that it would damage readers' eyes. John Baskerville was a maverick lacquer maker and printer in Birmingham, a flamboyant dresser, a key figure in the enlightenment. Though it earned him little money, he was obsessive about both his typeface and its appearance on the page, using a new form of paper to show it at its best. His perfection culminated in his Bible, acclaimed as the finest ever made. The story encompasses one of the first women of typography, his wife Sarah Baskerville, and the many typefaces the Baskervilles inspired. And it examines why John Baskerville's body was dug up and buried many times before it was finally allowed to rest in peace.