
THE HOUSE OF JOURNALISTS - Tim Finch
“Welcome to the House of Journalists. Who are you and what is your story?” The house in question is a refuge for exiled writers who have fallen foul of oppressive regimes. While the exiled fellows share their tales of tragedy and heroism and seek to capture a lost sense of home, domestic writers flock to the house, drawn by the power of stories far beyond experience. Set in a fashionable London terrace, it is a novel about displacement, heartbreak, and humour.
VINTAGE RIDER HAGGARD
Limited Edition Posters
To celebrate the release of She and King Solomon’s Mines, we have two limited edition posters to download. Simply click on one of the images above, and save to use as you wish.
Our new Vintage Classic covers were inspired by classic movie posters, along with pulp magazines from the early 20th Century.
A STING IN THE TALE - Dave Goulson
Once commonly found in the marshes of Kent, the short-haired bumblebee now only exists in the wilds of New Zealand, the descendants of a few queen bees shipped over in the nineteenth century. Dave Goulson’s passionate drive to reintroduce it to its native land is one of the highlights of a book that includes exclusive research into these curious creatures, history’s relationship with the bumblebee and advice on how to protect it for all time.
For the cover we worked with artist Louise Bird, whose own fascination with the bee world has dominated her work as a printmaker for many years. The final illustration was created using mezzotint, and hand tinted using etching inks to help create different levels of tone throughout the image.
Below the final cover is a selection of covers which didn’t quite make it, but showcase more of Louise’s beautiful imagery.
You can see more of Louise Bird’s work on her website: http://www.louisebird.co.uk/
SWALLOWS AND AMAZONS SERIES - Arthur Ransome
First published in the 1930s, the Swallows and Amazons series is full of excitement and adventure.
We worked with Finnish illustrator, graphic designer and artist Pietari Posti to help bring Arthur Ransome’s stories to life. Below Pietari describes the process involved when working across the new covers for Vintage Children’s Classics.
“I wanted to keep the spirit of the 30s on the covers but without feeling too ´old´ or outdated. Something that felt at the same time both vintage, and fresh. I think the limited colour palette of bright orange and fresh blues were a good choice for the series keeping all the covers united but still giving enough room for variation, and making each cover unique. The water is obviously an important element in the series, so I wanted to give it a really visible graphic treatment because it plays such an important role.”
You can see more from Pietari on his website: http://www.pposti.com/
UK vs US COVERS
We at CMYK thought it would be interesting to see the contrast between our covers and those from across the pond.
UK (Vintage) covers on the left. US (various) covers on the right.
SKAGBOYS - Irvine Welsh
As Porno was the sequel to Trainspotting, Skagboys is the prequel.
To celebrate the publication of the paperback, Vintage have repackaged
all three titles in a reverse of their traditional black and white livery.

LEVELS OF LIFE - Julian Barnes
Published 4th April 2013
Balloon reproduced by kind permission of Science and Society Picture Library
NEVIL SHUTE
Nevil Shute (1889-1960) was a British novelist and aeronautical engineer. He wrote classic tales of adventure with his engineering and aviation experiences often providing the backdrop. Shute draws comparison with a range of writers from Graham Greene and Robert Louis Stevenson to Rudyard Kipling and H.E. Bates.
Following the successful Nevil Shute relaunch in 2009, Vintage Classics are reissuing four more of his titles in July 2013. The covers follow the series style established by illustrator Mick Wiggins.
ANDREY PLATONOV - VINTAGE CLASSICS
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, one of the more remarkable literary discoveries has been Andrey Platonov. Despite being a supporter of the 1917 Revolution, Platonov quickly became disillusioned as he witnessed the effects of the 1921 drought and subsequent famine. By the end of that decade he had begun to document Soviet life, and while many of his early stories were printed, his later, more politically sensitive novels remained unpublished until after his death in 1951.
These typographical treatments are intended to reflect the Communist experience in Platonov’s writing – the workers as part of the machine in The Foundation Pit; the parachutist’s firey descent in Happy Moscow; and the star representing both the heartbeat of the individual and the individual bounded by society.
MY CRIMINAL WORLD
Published soon by Harvill Secker, My Criminal World is a clever, witty crime novel, by Henry Sutton. We needed the design to reflect its underlying humour, and boldly embrace its twist on literary crime novel tradition. Geoff Grandfield has done a brilliant job of creating a cover illustration that feels comic, but not too comic, menacing and a nice homage to classic crime, all in one.
FOUR FIELDS - Tim Dee
Occasionally the idea for a cover comes directly from an author and sometimes it is perfect. This was the case for the photograph suggested by Tim Dee for the cover of his book Four Fields published by Jonathan Cape this coming August. The book tells the story of four very different green fields from around the world, their fauna and flora and their natural and human histories. The photograph is by the Italian photographer Mario Giacomelli (1925- 2000), from his series Presa di coscienza sulla natura. This beautiful photograph demonstrates Giacomelli’s fascination with abstract shape and linear pattern. It also reveals his profound understanding of the landscape and countryside. What could work better for the jacket of this particular book? It was therefore very satisfying that permission to use the photograph was kindly given by the photographer’s son, Simone, as he recognized the book as being “consistent with the spirit of Giacomelli”.
More work by Giacomelli can be found at www.mariogiacomelli.it
ISMAIL KADARE - VINTAGE CLASSICS
Winner of the 2005 International Man Booker, Albanian writer Ismail Kadare has been subject to much controversy due to his ambiguous relationship to the brutal dictatorship of Enver Hoxha. This series was developed as much to reflect the complex societies within Stalinist Albania, as the historical allegories and Balkan myth imagined by Kadare.
REVENGE – Yoko Ogawa – Silk Bound Edition
These three different editions of Revenge by acclaimed Japanese writer Yoko Ogawa have been produced in collaboration with Midori Kunikata-Cockram of the Jade Bookbinding Studio.
Each one has been hand-bound in a chemise constructed from vintage silk sourced from Japan. Some were constructed from actual kimonos and others from specially sourced rolls of silk, and as such each one is entirely unique.
We have produced a total of only 100 numbered copies using three different fabrics; each one is signed by the author and beautifully wrapped in Japanese Shoji and Chiyogami handmade paper.
To register your interest please email - harvillseckereditorial@randomhouse.co.uk
You can also read about how the books were made over at Jade Bookbinding Studio.
WE NEED NEW NAMES - Noviolet Bulawayo
A brilliant debut novel in which ten-year-old Darling and her shantytown friends Stina, Chipo, Godknows, Sbho and Bastard spend their time playing ‘Find bin Laden’, stealing guavas and smiling photogenically for visiting NGOs. It’s down or out for these kids but, as Darling soon discovers, ‘out’ comes with its own set of problems.’
Noviolet Bulawayo has such an authentic voice it was important to portray this in the cover design. We researched African shop signage and textiles and the title font was drawn from that. The resulting layout allowed for the American part of the novel to be suggested within the design. Painting onto tin helped give the cover that raw energy that was needed, and we commissioned Georgina Potier who explains more below:
“I was lucky enough to come across some old etching plates outside a London Art School, I found these were a perfect distressed surface to create the images using model makers paints. I turned the original guides into reality…the paints were very difficult to work with however - like painting with nail varnish, and I had to use the tiniest paintbrush I could find! BUT I really enjoyed the whole process. It was great fun finding different implements to create the various textures, from cocktail sticks to an old rubber!“
LEVELS OF LIFE - Julian Barnes
‘You put together two things that have not been put together before. And the world is changed…’ Julian Barnes’s new book is about ballooning, photography, love and grief; about putting two things, and two people, together, and about tearing them apart. One of the judges who awarded him the 2011 Man Booker Prize described him as 'an unparalleled magus of the heart’. This book confirms that opinion.
We were captivated by the text and immediately set about finding visual expressions to match its content. For a while we developed a series of typographic designs where the author and title gradually submerged into different coloured levels. This idea was gradually paired down until it became simpler, bold and stark revealing an elegant and classic layout that felt redolent of Barnes’ text. We wanted the cover to be evocative of the surprising silence you experience on a balloon trip, the other worldliness, the stifled fear and suspense.
