Paul Delrue | Mud Angel
When we published a new edition of Florence: Ordeal by Water - the diaries of Kathrine Kressmann Taylor - I had no idea quite how many new stories and books and writers and readers would bubble up and connect as a direct result of her account of the flooding of the River Arno in Florence in 1966.
So it is a huge honour to reproduce here an essay by one of my favourite artists, Valerie Greeley, who contacted me after reading Florence: Ordeal by Water. Valerie had no idea of the magnitude of the damage caused by the flood until she delved into the book. But a connection to this tragic event had already been laid out for her - one might say, serendipitously…
It was while researching how to bind books almost two decades ago that Valerie met Paul Delrue, who she stumbled across while looking up The Society of Bookbinders. As you will discover from her essay below, she has been happily entranced with his work, and his legacy, ever since.
Here is the story of mud angel Paul Delrue:
“I recently finished reading Katherine Kressmann Taylor’s diary Florence: Ordeal by Water. Although I had visited Florence and knew a little about the terrible events of thevflood, I did not appreciate the true scale of the disaster until I read this book. This eye-witness account brought home to me the sheer enormity of the tragedy in terms of human misery with homes and businesses devastated. So many precious artefacts, books and paintings were ruined by the mud and debris when the Arno burst its banks on that fateful November evening in 1966. Despite the obvious gloom described in this gripping eye witness account there are tales of heroic deeds, dogged determination and the courage of the Florentine citizens, later followed by an army of volunteers, the Angeli del Fango.
The clarion call for help was heard far and wide, with over a million books in the Biblioteca Nationale submerged in toxic mud the task of conservation was seemingly impossible. One such volunteer was my friend Paul Delrue. Whereas Katherine had her typewriter to record events, Paul had his precious Box Brownie camera to capture some of those scenes.
Paul Delrue was already an established Fellow of Designer Bookbinders by the time I met him. He was a leading figure in, and later Patron of the Society of Bookbinders which is where we first became acquainted. I had the good fortune to live in the North West and North Wales area and as a total novice was welcomed into his region of the society, there he often spoke of his youth and the part he played in Florence and he recalled those earlier times in his book My Soul Has No Friends.
Paul spent his early years growing up in a boy’s home and later he became an apprenticeat University College library. His artistic flair and bookbinding skills brought him early recognition which lead to his invitation to go to Florence. He writes: ‘In early 1967 I had been asked by Howard Nixon the Deputy Keeper of The British Museum, to hold myself in readiness to go to Florence.’ I imagine that this was hugely exciting for a young man who had hardly any experience of travel and being a very sociable person I think he would have enjoyed being with a group of people his own age.
His conservation work in Florence was spent in the book baths where he washed the mud from the pages of manuscripts which had been previously dismantled. The pages were then carefully dried, Paul told of how he had to hang them out to dry on washing lines along the railway tracks! His experiences were recounted with great affection, he writes: ‘The beauty of Florence overwhelmed me and my favourite meeting place was the Ponte Vecchio.’
The conservationists who helped in the 1966 Florence flood had to devise new methods of mass scale treatments and valuable lessons were learned which helped prepare for any future events. Paul, however, did not pursue a career in that direction, his heart and soul was in art and design. I think something in the spirit of Florence and its citizens sparked that flame.
Paul died last year and did not live to see the 50th celebrations of the Society he helped to found which was a great pity because he loved a party! I remember him with affection, he was a generous teacher, mentor to many rising stars in the bookbinding world. He had a wicked sense of humour, a sparkle in his eye and song in his heart. His legacy lives on in his beautiful fine bindings which grace both public and private collections the world over.”
By Valerie Greeley
Useful links
Delrue Bookbinders
Designer Bookbinders | Paul Delrue
The Society of Bookbinders
Valerie Greeley | website
Books about Florence
Florence: Ordeal by Water by Kathrine Kressmann Taylor (Manderley Press, 2024)
Angels of Mud by Vanessa Nicolson (signed copies exclusively at manderleypress.com)
A guide to the carousel images above
A young Paul Delrue in Florence, 1967.
Paul outside the Pensione Bretagne.
Paul outside the National Library, the shadow is Professor Leo Coulston.
The British Team of conservators.
A group of Paul’s friends in Florence.
The Arno after the flood, the flood waters reached the top of the arches of the bridge.
Student dining.
In the wash house, Italian students washing the books. Paul second from the back.
Paul holding one of his bindings at a meeting of The Society Of Bookbinders.
“Florence: Ordeal by Water was absolutely indispensable during my research for Still Life. Here, finally, was a vivid eye-witness account of the 1966 flood that devastated Florence. Utterly compelling.”
- Sarah Winman, best-selling author of Still Life
A brand new edition of Kathrine Kressmann Taylor’s forgotten diaries, chronicling the 1966 floods in Florence - now re-issued over 50 years after they were first published, introduced by Vanessa Nicolson and illustrated by Agnesbic.
To showcase this wonderful book, we commissioned the writer and art historian Vanessa Nicolson to pen a new introduction – she lives in both Florence and Kent, and is the author of the brilliant novel Angels of Mud, which is set in 1940s London and 1960s Florence, and tells the story of the aftermath of the floods.
Kathrine Kressmann Taylor was a recently retired American living in Florence in 1966. She remained there to witness the flood and its aftermath, including the days of isolation without light, food, water that followed the initial disaster.
Standing, incredulous, at the window of her pensione on the morning of 4th November 1966, Kathrine saw the the brown torrent of the river Arno – thick with flotsam, oil drums, cars, chairs, trees – rising into the streets. Her infinitely moving diary of the days of the flood, and those that followed, detail how the citizens of Florence strove against the choking sea of mud that engulfed their homes, possessions, shops and art.
The author is perhaps most well-known for her 1938 novella - the international bestseller Address Unknown- a haunting tale written on the eve of the Holocaust which predicted the full horrors of Nazism.
Her trademark succinct yet vivid style is evident in this powerful Florence diary too. The book is an intensely personal account through which we can visualise the thickness of the torrent streaked with chrome yellow; the elderly scholars saving works of art; a great swan, coated with black fuel oil, flailing for life; a woman singing as she attacks devastation with a bucket and a rag; the mudheaps spangled with splinters of red, gold and silver Christmas tree ornament; and the men and women searching through debris for belongings accumulated over many generations.
“There will be many accounts of Florence’s Ordeal in November 1966. but Ms Kressmann Taylor’s will surely be the most vivid and moving.”
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Each book ordered through the website is wrapped in tissue paper and tied with a matching silk ribbon, free of charge - and also includes an exclusive bookmark designed to complement the cover design.
All copies signed by the author!
While stocks last, treat yourself to a copy of Angels of Mud by Vanessa Nicolson - art historian and memoirist, who also wrote the introduction to our new edition of Kathrine Kressman Taylor’s diaries: Florence: Ordeal by Water.
Angels of Mud is a novel of secrets and misunderstandings, a story of mothers and daughters - and what happens when, unwittingly, you follow in a parent's footsteps.
At a school in Clerkenwell, in 1959, young Cara sets eyes on the boy who will come to obsess her.
Years earlier her mother, stuck in a sterile marriage, had fallen for her neighbour's son, a man so different from her unassuming husband.
These stories of yearning intertwine in London's Little Italy until, in 1966, broken-hearted Cara escapes to Florence.
Then the river Arno floods, leaving a trail of devastation in its wake.
Cara volunteers to help, becoming one of the Mud Angels who recover damaged masterpieces and rare artefacts - their work a symbol of the world's desire to unite and rebuild.
The two love stories, of mother and daughter, are pieced together by Cara's daughter Laura.
Vanessa Nicolson writes about raw emotion but also with an acute historical sensitivity about the two cities, both of which she knows well. The novel is as rich in topographical detail as it is in emotional truth.
“Nicolson is a startlingly skilful writer” Evening Standard
“… (her) writing scrapes away the skin of everyday life, exposing the raw vulnerabilities and passions underneath” Times Literary Supplement
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Manderley Press has collaborated with the acclaimed illustrator Agnesbic to create an exclusive print based on the iconic cover and endpaper designs from the brand new Manderley Press edition of Kathrine Kressmann Taylor’s book Florence: Ordeal by Water.
These A3 giclée prints are produced here in London to the highest fine art quality, printed on ph neutral paper using an 11-colour pigment ink set, which has been specially designed to allow for a faithful reproduction of the original artwork with no loss in colour, clarity or detail over time. Prints will last between 50 to 75 years with no fading, and neither will the paper yellow or discolour, even when exposed to sunlight.
Art prints are packaged in acid-free tissue paper, and posted out in sturdy cardboard mailing tubes.
The perfect print for those who read and enjoyed the Manderley Press edition of Kathrine Kressmann Taylor’s diaries chronicling the devastating flooding of the River Arno in 1966 - or for anyone who simply loves Florence, Italian art and design and vintage travel and history.
Please note - these prints are sold unframed.