From the Jerusalem Diary of Eric Gill

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People are easily offended, and disinclined to consider nuance; the mob can be whipped up in as long as it takes to send a few tweets. After a short period in Battersea, the couple moved into 20 Black Lion Lane, Hammersmith in west London, near the, recently married, Johnstons' home on Hammersmith Terrace. In terms of what goes on behind closed doors, both now and then – a Hell of a lot more than we are aware of. Arthur Tidman Gill had left the Congregational Church in 1878 over doctrinal disagreements and became a minister of the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion, a grouping of Calvinist Methodists.

He was adamantly opposed to fascism, and was one of the few Catholics in Britain to openly support the Spanish Republicans. Gill's final publications included Twenty-Five Nudes and Drawings from Life both of which included drawings of Daisy Hawkins, the teenage daughter of the Gills' housekeeper with whom Gill began an affair in 1937. Gill Sans remains well known in all kinds of applications, including the iconic Penguin books typography, as a standard digital font installed on many computers, and in the modern BBC logo. He later gave them to the Victoria and Albert Museum so they could be used by students at the Royal College of Art.I suggest this is a somewhat blunt way of discussing issues that are both very sensitive and highly complex. Those involved want to go through their press offices, which I understand; but once I am in contact with said press offices, I’m informed that no one is willing to speak to me in person – everyone is far too “busy”. In 1925, he designed the Perpetua typeface for Morison, with the uppercase based upon monumental Roman inscriptions. He had a brief affair with the family maid while his wife was pregnant and then a relationship with Lillian Meacham, who he met through the Fabian Society.

Gill “began propounding a complicated theory, or succession of theories, in which sexual activity is aligned to godliness, in which the sexual organs, far from their conventional depiction as the source of scandal, are ‘redeemed’ by Christ and ‘made dear’. They provide expert and detailed descriptions, disclose all significant defects and/or restorations, provide clear and accurate pricing, and operate with fairness and honesty during the purchase experience. Along with his friend and collaborator Jacob Epstein, Gill planned the construction in the Sussex countryside of a colossal, hand-carved monument in imitation of the large-scale structures at Gwalior Fort in Madhya Pradesh. In 1914, Gill had met the typographer Stanley Morison, who was later to become a typographic consultant for the Monotype Corporation.He became increasingly unhappy with the impact of humanity upon the world and also become convinced of his own role as one chosen by God to change society. However he was prepared to do the work quicker and for a lower fee than more established sculptors would.

Entitled Not Turning a Blind Eye, the purpose of this event was to begin a process that would in time, we were told, lead to the museum dealing “more publicly with the subject of Eric Gill as an abuser”.

There was a “quadruple relationship, with Gill’s two middle-aged-to-elderly dependants (May was in her forties, Mary now over sixty) competing with Daisy [a twenty year old youth] for his sexual attentions.