TONI MORRISON BACKLIST - Black History Month
Nobel prize-winning author Toni Morrison is world-renowned for exploring the experiences of black Americans in her writing. Much of her emotive and visceral work documents the trials faced by African-American Women throughout history and into contemporary society.
The backlist was re-jacketed towards the end of 2015, with the covers given a unified, colourful and accessible design. Each book incorporates a symbolic element, offering a nod to the range of issues including identity, oppression and sacrifice that often course throughout her novels.
Her entire fiction backlist is published by Vintage Books and available now.
TALKING TO MY DAUGHTER ABOUT THE ECONOMY - Yanis Varoufakis
In this short book, world famous economist Yanis Varoufakis sets out to answer his daughter Xenia’s deceptively simple question - why is there so much inequality?
With personal stories and famous myths, Varoufakis explains what the economy is and why it has the power to shape our lives. Introducing us to the most important drama of our times, helping to make sense of a troubling world while inspiring us to make a better one.
With hand lettering by Lily Jones the cover is foil blocked onto a vibrant orange cloth.
Talking to My Daughter About the Economy is available now from The Bodley Head.
Black History Month
October marks the start of Black History month, and to celebrate, we’ll be championing some of our favourite books over the
coming weeks.
South African novelist and Designer Yewande Omotoso’s The Woman Next Door tells the story of two warring Octogenarians in Cape Town suburbia. One is black, the other white. Neighbours and sworn enemies for years, the two are forced together in the face of an unforeseen event. Alice Pattulo’s illustrated screen print captures the playful nature of the two main characters.
Birth of a Dream Weaver is Kenyan novelist Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s memoir of his life as an ambitious young student at a Ugandan University in the 1960s. wa Thiong’o describes how living in the shadow of colonialism and then experiencing the subsequent independence of Kenya helped shape him as a writer during that time. Artist and illustrator Emmanuel Polanco’s work features on the cover.
NoViolet Bulawayo is a prize-winning author who’s novel We Need New Names was shortlisted for the Man Booker prize in 2013. In Bulawayo’s coming-of-age story, Ten-year-old Darling navigates her youth in a Zimbabwean shantytown and then adulthood in America in hopes of a better life. The cover incorporates an illustration by Georgina Potier, and was created by the title being painted onto tin and then photographed. The brightly coloured lettering is highly reminiscent of hand painted signage often seen advertising businesses throughout Africa.
All three are available now.
DUNBAR - Edward St Aubyn
Edward St Aubyn is renowned for his masterwork, the five Melrose novels,
which dissect with savage and beautiful precision the agonies of family
life. Dunbar is his take on Shakespeare’s King Lear in which he imagines the protagonist as a media despot, tragically falling from grace. It is a devastating family story and
novel of our times – an examination of power, money and the
value of forgiveness.
We commissioned Peter Strain to illustrate Dunbar, dwarfed by an epic, blizzardous landscape that wraps around the full jacket.
Dunbar is published by Hogarth Shakespeare and available now in hardback
10 YEARS OF VINTAGE CLASSICS COVER DESIGN
It has been 10 years since Vintage launched its Classics imprint and to celebrate we created this animation showcasing some of our favourite designs.
Our creative director Suzanne Dean recently spoke to creative review about how the original series took shape and how its design approach has evolved. You can read the full interview here.
BURBERRY ‘HERE WE ARE’ EXHIBITION - Old Sessions House
Old Sessions House, a 18th-century Grade II listed
building is currently playing host to 14 rooms of fashion and photography curated
by Burberry Chief Creative Officer Christopher Bailey, Lucy Kumara Moore and
Alasdair McMellan. Here We Are is
a carefully selected celebration of British Life in its various guises – the
ordinary and the extraordinary; with each photograph offering a social
commentary on British life over the last 50+ years.
The new Runway Collection is also on display and
clearly shows the fun and playful side of the brand,
with illustrated cartoon characters on classic trench coats.
The two-week exhibition closes on Sunday October 1st, and is well worth a visit.
THE HANDMAID’S TALE - Vintage Special Edition
Next week sees the publication of the Vintage Special Edition of The Handmaid’s Tale.
Margaret Atwood’s ground-breaking work was
originally released in 1985 and has now been given an iconic new look by Israeli
illustrator Noma Bar. The design features the instantly recognisable image of a
handmaid on the cover. The handmaid appears again as a de-bossed image on the
board and a repeated pattern on the endpapers. This special edition also has eye-catching sprayed edges.
Two more classic texts in Noma’s distinct style will follow in the new year.
WORLD WITHOUT MIND – Franklin Foer
Franklin Foer’s brilliantly researched World Without Mind is a compelling polemic revealing how the big tech companies are damaging our culture - and what we can all do to fight their influence.
The corporate ambitions of Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon, he argues, are trampling longstanding liberal values, especially intellectual property and privacy. This is a nascent stage in the total automation and homogenization of social, political, and intellectual life. By reclaiming our private authority over how we intellectually engage with the world, we have the power to stem the tide.
A difficult concept to realise, but the aim was to focus on the smartphone - our own personal link to cyberspace.
Our smartphones are now our diary and our dictionary. They contain our conversations, our movements, our reading tastes, music, fashion and more – and the big-tech companies are aiming to influence these decisions.
Early cover ideas focussed on a jumble of Ministry-of-Truth-like text messages, and cracked smartphones revealing darker influences. This is what influenced the idea behind the final cover - what lies beneath the surface – and how we are suckered into believing that owning such sophisticated devices will somehow improve us.
World Without Mind is published this month by Jonathan Cape.
THE GROWING SEASON - Helen Sedgwick
Imagine a not-so-distant future where biotech has removed the burden of childbirth from women. With FullLife’s baby pouches, women are liberated from danger and constraint and all can share the joy of childbearing.
Eva has spent her life campaigning against these artificial wombs, but just as she decides to accept them like the rest of society, she discovers that something strange is happening behind FullLife’s closed doors.
The jacket was designed in-house and below are a series of illustrations created for the book campaign, showing how easy it is for men and women to use the FullLife baby pouch.
IMRE KERTÉSZ
We recently commissioned Harry Tennant to create bold, evocative new illustrations for four of Imre Kertész’s novels - Fateless, Detective Story, Liquidation, Kaddish for an Unborn Child as Vintage Classics.
GHOSTS OF THE TSUNAMI - Richard Lloyd Parry
This powerful and moving book about the devastating tsunami which struck Japan in 2011, deserved a bold and striking jacket design. Inspired by Hokusai’s Great Wave, the final book jacket uses an abstract wave design to give a sense of the power and malevolence of the sea. To further suggest the unstoppable nature of the tsunami, the design always works as a continuous wave when the books are displayed side by side, whether showing the front or back. The dark and ominous wave also continues over the spine and onto the flaps, further illustrating the relentless and all consuming nature of the disaster.
SEASONS – Karl Ove Knausgaard
From the author of the monumental My Struggle series, Karl Ove Knausgaard, one of the masters of contemporary literature and a genius of observation and introspection, come the first two books in a new autobiographical quartet based on the four seasons.
Beautifully illustrated by Vanessa Baird (Autumn) and Lars Lerin (Winter), these tender and deeply personal books capture Knausgaard at his most riveting – marvelling at the vast, unknowable universe around us. Autumn publishes this month and Winter in November. Keep an eye out for Spring and Summer…
JAMES BOND - Ian Fleming
This November sees Ian Fleming’s most loved James Bond books published in hardback with striking cover designs illustrated by Levente Szabo. Each of these editions features a new introduction by writer, film-maker and James Bond expert, John Cork.
You can find out more about these new editions on the Ian Fleming website
The 007 hardbacks will be published by Vintage Classics.
MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN - SALMAN RUSHDIE
Today marks the 70th anniversary of the Partition of India, and the transition from British colonialism to independence.
First published in 1981 and Booker Prize winner that year as well as Booker of Bookers winner, Midnight’s Children explores the events around the newborn nation of India.
The chief protagonist, Saleem Sinai is born at the stroke of midnight on August 15th, 1947 “at the precise moment of India’s independence” and his fate is mysteriously bound up with the ensuing historical events.
BEAUTIFUL ANIMALS - Lawrence Osborne
CHOOSE YOUR HOLIDAY READ AS CAREFULLY AS YOU CHOOSE YOUR FRIENDS…
Sinister and ravishing, Beautiful Animals tells the story of two worlds colliding. It exposes the dark heart of friendship, and shows just how often the road to hell is paved with the best of intentions.
