The Back-Story

I founded Edgeway Press in March 2023.

I had recently been given a signed copy of Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own - the 10th such copy of a limited run of 100 that Virginia and Leonard hand-printed on their Hogarth Press.
It had a profound impact on me.

With some of its rough pages still uncut, ink splats visible on margins and within the body of the text, it was clearly made by someone who was learning a new craft, embarking on a new adventure and giving herself the creative freedom and power to print exactly what she wanted, how she wanted.
And having a lot of very messy fun in the process.

As the author of five books printed by mainstream UK publishers, I’d become increasingly frustrated by the creative, artistic and logistical restrictions of traditional publishing, the new requirements of social media clicks and likes, of having to write to suit a market that didn’t seem to understand itself any more, of the ever-more AI dominated in-house styles of magazines, and of a form of writing that paid fewer bills, took more of my soul and joy and gave ever less pleasure in either reading or writing in return.

I’d tried various online platforms to publish my work, but none felt quite right to me. I yearned for the pleasure of seeing words in book form, and of those words being exactly as the writer wished them to be, not an algorithm.

I desperately sought the freedom and power to Do A Virginia, and print my words my way - and then also the words of others.

So I decided to set up my own publishing house and have a go.

Focussing on my greatest passions and loves (travel, and the myriad baffling, beautiful, painful, joyful and wondrous experiences of being Human) I hope to publish books that bring great pleasure to both writers and readers alike, and to leave these stories and accounts for generations to come.

Also, I just want to learn how to make and publish books, for the sheer adventurous, creative fun of it!

In 2024 I put Edgeway Press on hold for a while to work on other projects, but 2025 sees its return, with a new direction and energy.

Edgeway Press’s aims are very simple:

-       to publish books in paper-and-ink form that are as much a pleasure to hold, read, collect and share as they are a contribution to the long history of words on a page.

-       to produce a timely and timeless library of beautiful, impactful words that matter and last.

- to encourage and support writers whose words might not otherwise find their way onto paper, or into the lives of others.

- to create something meaningful that outlives me, and can be read and enjoyed by those to come.

Liz Fraser, March 2025.