England can boast of a number of industrial firms whose record goes back to the Napoleonic Wars; their archives provide material for a continuous economic history of the last century and a half. John Dickinson, a ‘character’ of volcanic energy, first set up as a manufacturing stationer in 1804, and soon afterwards bought mills for the manufacture of paper by machinery of his own invention, later building others at Croxley and Home Park. The coming of the railways, the introduction of en-velopes, and the institution of the Penny Post greatly increased the scope of his business. John Dickinson’s great-niece, Dr. Joan Evans, has celebrated the 150th anniversary of the foundation of the firm of Messrs. John Dickinson & Co. by writing its history to the present time. An abundance of family letters and diaries, a full documentation from the mills, and the survival of many old photographs have made it possible for her to write a book that will interest social and economic historians as well as students of the history of paper-making.