Sometimes the idea for a book is so good that you wonder why it took so long. De Krant van Gisteren is a case in point. What do people do with their old newspapers, wondered Koos Staal, himself responsible for the basic design of dozens of newspapers in the Netherlands and elsewhere. Here he has collected the answers together in a book that he published himself – wrapped in an old newspaper. A newspaper publisher was found willing to print this tiny order on his new rotary press: after all, a book like this obviously has to smell of newsprint.

With its thick cardboard covers and an open spine it has also turned out a book for our times. It provides plenty of food for thought on where the paper media are headed. Has the race between paper and digital already been run? What are we going to stuff into our wet shoes to help them dry out? The paper we may use to print out our tablet daily is nothing like as absorbent. The publishers of De Krant van Gisteren know the answer: ‘Long live the paper paper!’