Billigs Handbooks : Seek Full Set.

What a shame. And I suppose if they won't play along, you are pretty much stuck.

I assume that the secret to philatelic publishing is to have a love of the subject, and let the sales follow. Once the material is assembled, the bar to admission for publishing seems so low that you almost can't imagine why someone wouldn't proceed.

I could hope their reticence was due to an imagined total reworking of the Encyclopedia, but of course, that isn't it.

I've self published since then, but I did make a physical copy of the book, which was in 2011. The only thing I couldn't do at home was the dustjacket. A very rewarding experience, and I use the book periodically too!!

It's a rewrite based on Lowe's statement in volume 5 of what he wanted volume 6 to look like, ie: the balance of the Empire. As we know, his volume 6 only covered the Leeward Islands. My book only goes to 1900, so they kind of compliment each other. I got his volume 6 after I wrote mine

They sound unimaginative and stuck with 19th (even 20th) century thinking . Spend a few bucks to format for Adobe InDesign or QuarkXPress, and then make it available as print-on-demand. No upfront printing costs, no carrying costs, infinitely update-able, and would never sell out.

There's a reputational issue. Look at Spink's publications - they don't do cheap and cheerful.

Nor they should!

I have no issue with them not wanting to publish, even though there were the pangs of disappointment at the time. There was a lot of work put in to write it, not to mention physically making it.

It seems like a lifetime ago now, and I've moved on to different fields.

As for digital publishing, I love the concept, but the time it would take to bring the book up to date is something I just don't have now.

As they say in the classics, it is what it is.

Yes, was it Patrick White who said that?

I truly have no idea!

Ironic that I just looked up the Trinidad & Tobago question from the book though

I did include postal stationery to the end of KGV.