John Morgan and Derek Birdsall came to an initial meeting about the production of the Church of England’s Common Worship (2000) with a sample in booklet form even before they had been given the job. The venture was overseen by a design and format group chaired by Sir Christopher Frayling, of which I was a member.
The red pages (“for joy”, Birdsall explained) and Gill Sans typeface were already in place. Bold was used to indicate parts of the service that were spoken by everyone, and regular text for the individual presiding.
They completed the work with Church House Publishing, and a finished volume was presented to Queen Elizabeth II at a special service in Westminster Abbey, with Derek and John introduced to her beforehand. This caused John to buy his first tie – he told us he had not previously owned one.
