Draft pamphlet currently being checked by the GANTOB Quality Control subcommittee This month’s insert is rather behind schedule, after distractions from preparing a submission to another publication where the contributor had initially not read the instructions properly. Aiming to have it all sorted for next weekend, ready to post out with all of Gaynor’s A4 artwork for GP006 – GP009. The next two pamphlets are available from Buymeacoffee (£3 each).
Meanwhile, we have been sent the artwork for pamphlet GP010, by the GANTOB Artist in Correspondence.
November’s pamphlet (GP006) is available to preorder on our Buymeacoffee page
Yet to be written, it is inspired by looking at Gaynor’s painting on a very stormy day
To be enjoyed with ELO’s Summer and Lightning, one of The Benefaktor’s favourites from his Pop Music 101 with Gillian Finks, Autumn 2023
Final copy of GP001, and a few more copies of GP002-005 are still available on the site. All come with various extras
If you miss the coloured card copy of any of the pamphlets (they come in editions of only 20) you can request a paper copy with any other order, so you can keep up with the evolving story
The GANTOB team are currently doing some research on islands for the forthcoming pack (GP005).
In addition to the pamphlet that continues the Doris Wolff story (this month’s instalment is called The Opponent), there will be a Little Grapefruit pamphlet. The GANTOB editor thinks that Big Grapefruit in the Big Apple requires a bit more work, so the author is currently doing some further research on that story, on an island. There may therefore be a slight delay in printing and posting GP005 (a week or two).
The forthcoming GANTOB package, The Opponent (GP005), will include a new story from the Little Grapefruit verse. It will be in a pamphlet of its own called Big Grapefruit in the Big Apple.
In August, Edinburgh is all about the crowds. It’s much busier than Curt Finks’ era, though there are no doubt shows with as few audience members as his “fringe of The Fringe of the Edinburgh International Festival” performances.
There are crowds in this month’s pamphlet, The Admirer (GP004), but not in Edinburgh. Buy it here. The final version will be printed on card. It comes with an A4 print (numbered and signed), a handwritten green tea slip from the drafting of the story, and a contribution from somebody we haven’t heard from for months, returning to a previous preoccupation. Only available by snail mail.
Next month’s pamphlet is also ready to preorder at the same link.
The current management of GANTOB (yours truly) does not drink green tea, despite trying to like it over a period of many months. I’m more like Doris Wolff in this year’s pamphlet series, who gravitates towards coffee, for her daytime hot drink at least.
GANTOB tradition dictates, however (and Urs Kanning, wife of The (late) Benefaktor, insists) that I continue to write on green teabag envelopes/ slips. That leaves me every month with spare unwrapped green teabags.
If you would like to receive some green teabags with your next pamphlet delivery please let me know.
MAUREEN KATZ, 14 August 2026
A used green teabag from yesterday’s lunch. All teabags distributed to GANTOB customers will be in date and unused.
It’s proofing, printing and quality assurance day at GANTOB HQ. The first copies of GP003 will be posted this afternoon. Buy yours, or subscribe to the series, at buymeacoffee.
On the perils of trying to save money with cheaper card. Pastel variants of this pamphlet will not be issued
GP003 (TABLES) is in production. It includes a pamphlet called Table that will be printed on card, a green tea slip with the initial notes for the story in pencil, an A4 signed and numbered print of the picture by Gaynor that inspired the writing, an A5 insert (in preparation) that provides some reflections from a trip to visit Ali and Fiona Finks in the Highlands last weeks, and another hand drawn green tea slip with a picture drawn during that trip. All for £3 to cover costs and postage and packaging, anywhere in the world. Shipping next Saturday. Buy it here.
Today, 23 July 2026, is the third anniversary of GANTOB. It is when Gillian Finks first wrote to Bill Drummond and The KLFRS’s The Tillerman to ask for permission to reenact the book Grapefruit Are Not The Only Bombs.
So it was fitting that I took a trip to the Agency for Legal Deposit Libraries to deposit five copies of GANTOB’s 25 Paintings, having received their request a few days ago. Copies will be with the National Library of Scotland, The Bodleian Library Oxford, University National Library of Wales, Cambridge University Library, and The Library of Trinity College Dublin in due course.
I thought I had five copies reserved for this purpose, but I had forgotten I had sent copies to Bill Drummond (receipt acknowledged) and John Higgs (no response as yet). I therefore had to send my own personal copy. That felt like a rather Bill Drummond thing to do.
The four reserved copies had been bashed before I had even received them, so were accompanied with a copy of The Broken Spine pamphlet (April 2026). My pristine copy of the book, from the first print run, was sent with a newly drafted pamphlet, The Missing Ribbon, named after the defining feature of that issue. The new pamphlet updates some points, including the new series of pamphlets for 2026/27.
The ALDL warehouse is in a drab industrial estate on the other side of Edinburgh from my home. I cycled there with 8.5kg of books attached to my handlebars and in my rucksack, appreciating the thistles and ragwort in the sidings. Who would have thought that such a pivotal cultural institution would be situated in such a hinterland.
On the way back I took photos of graffiti. A thoroughly enjoyable way to start our third birthday.
A message from Gaynor marks the day well:
‘Wow really!!
This is the longest iv ever been interested in “stuff”
Each GANTOB pamphlet order for the 2026/27 series (12 titles planned) comes with at least one hand written or drawn green tea slip. The precise number depends on the number of stories in the pamphlet or booklet that month. These are the originals produced in drafting the content, not copies. Each green tea slip comes with a sticker on the back giving a bit more context. GANTOB HQ has a photo of each green tea slip for authentication if required at a future date. This month (Tables, GP003, July 2026) comes with pencil drawings of creatures in Badenoch, from photos I took this week while visiting Ali and Fiona Finks. The two pictured here are works in progress. Some of the drawings have detachable tails on green tea labels. These will be taped to the back of the green tea slip so that the recipient can choose the placement of the tail themself.
