Neville Kinghorn

Life in print

An unrivalled view of Westminster graces the fifth floor window, and Canon Law for the Newly Ordained is hot off the press, both facts establishing the printroom at Church House in Great Smith Street as a pleasant working environment playing a vital role in the life of the Church.

'We print lots,' says Reprographics Officer Neville Kinghorn - reproducing a memory list: reports for General Synod, business cards, papers, letterheads, A5 booklets, vacancy lists. 'On average we print anything up to two to three million copies in a year.'

That means 40-plus million items have been expertly printed in Neville's 18-and-a-half years as part of the (these days three-person) team; although longevity is not uncommon in Church House reprographics, a nine-to-five working day preferable to the gruelling 11-hour shifts offered by many commercial printrooms: 'One of them's worked here for 32 years.'

As another publication flies page by page into the tray, Neville quickly tells his life story: he was born in north London, emigrated to Jamaica at the age of eight, returned to London at 17; he's worked in printrooms ever since, and lives in Croydon with his wife and nine-year-old son.

'Over the years everything has more or less became digital and computerised,' he explains, punching the instructions into a Xerox 4110 capable of 120 sheets per minute. 'What we have in the printroom now are what you call high volume copiers, and everything's copied digitally, and we do print finishing as well - which is the make up of the booklets and things like that.'

Formerly a European karate champion, who still visits youth groups to give talks on martial arts, Neville was once advised he should aim to demonstrate the same amount of discipline in his day job - which would probably prove to be impractical.

'If the machine breaks down,' he laughs, collecting up the printed pages, 'I can't really kick it can I?'

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