Something of a beta-blocker moment at the weekend, while visiting the London Original Print Fair at the Royal Academy.

A plethora of fantastic print work was of course on display, including a mind-boggling 30-colour screenprint of a James Hugonin work, loads of Lambda prints, elegant etchings old and new, and a couple of works by Sir Peter Blake and Damien Hirst printed using "diamond dust", which certainly produces a rather special sparkliness.

So much print-based loveliness put a certain spring in my step, but then came the bucket of cold water... On the way out of the exhibition I purchased a copy of Hogarth by Tim Clayton. Hogarth's House is not far from Francis Towers and I pass his statue in Chiswick several times a week, he is justifiably lauded in these parts.

It's a lovely little book, published by the British Museum Press, and with some excellent reproductions of Hogarth's exquisitely detailed engravings along with an illuminating explanation of the Hogarth back story - he was one of a group of artists responsible for the introduction of the Copyright Act. Then I saw to my horror that this tribute to an artist celebrated for his patriotism and "Britishness" was printed in China. While I've nothing whatsoever against the people at C&C Offset Printing, for it was they, I can't help but wonder what on earth the people at the British Museum Press were thinking. Is there really no British printer capable of producing this job for the required quality and [suitable] price point? It is hardly the sort of mass-market colour book needed at the lowest possible unit cost in order to make it onto The Book People's list.

I apologise for becoming something of a Sweary Mary at this point. Truly there is no bleedin' hope for us if the buggering British bloody Museum buys like this. Can you imagine such a thing happening in, say, France? A fact-finding trip to the Louvre could be in order to find out whether the French are similar sanguine about the printing of works by Monet, Matisse et al. Somehow I doubt it.