May 22, 2017
May 19, 2017
RAYMOND WILLIAMS
‘To be truly radical is to make hope possible, rather than despair convincing’
Wise words for confusing times from the greatest of cultural commentators.
Williams is as relevant today as he was in the ‘60s and ‘70′s, and these...

RAYMOND WILLIAMS

‘To be truly radical is to make hope possible, rather than despair convincing’

Wise words for confusing times from the greatest of cultural commentators.

Williams is as relevant today as he was in the ‘60s and ‘70′s, and these masterpieces of materialist criticism have adopted a fresh typographic treatment for their release into our Vintage Classics series.

May 16, 2017
SPOILS - Brian Van Reet
She is the most dangerous thing around. The best soldiers are like her, just on the far side of childhood.
In Spoils the Iraq war is seen through the eyes of combatants from both sides, chillingly brought together by battle....

SPOILS - Brian Van Reet

She is the most dangerous thing around. The best soldiers are like her, just on the far side of childhood.

In Spoils the Iraq war is seen through the eyes of combatants from both sides, chillingly brought together by battle. Nineteen-year-old Specialist Cassandra Wigheard, on her first deployment since joining the U.S. Army two years earlier, is primed for war. For Abu al-Hool, a jihadist since the days of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, war is wearing thin. Two decades of fighting – and the new wave of super-radicalised fighters joining the ranks in the wake of the September 11 attacks – have left him questioning his commitment to the struggle.

This is a haunting novel of life and death. It seemed perfectly matched to the image of the burning butterfly, which is both beautiful and terrifying at the same time.

The burning butterfly was photographed by YBA, Mat Collishaw. Known for his provocative imagery, this photograph was part of a series that shows butterflies crushed, burned and smashed.  They are seen at the moment of their deaths. The images have been enlarged into photographic prints of great smears of colour.

Spoils is published on 18th June by Jonathan Cape

May 12, 2017
KUMUKANDA – Kayo Chingonyi
‘You sly devil. Lounging in a Pinter script
or pitched from a transit van’s rolled-down window;
my shadow on this unlit road, though you’ve been
smuggled from polite conversation…’ – The N Word
Poetry by Kayo Chingonyi....

KUMUKANDA – Kayo Chingonyi

‘You sly devil. Lounging in a Pinter script
or pitched from a transit van’s rolled-down window;
my shadow on this unlit road, though you’ve been
smuggled from polite conversation…’ – The N Word

Poetry by Kayo Chingonyi. Underpinned by a love of music, language and literature, here is a powerful exploration of race, identity and masculinity, celebrating what it means to be British and not British, all at once.

Our cover image is A Radical Under Beechwood by British artist Lynette Yiadom Boakye - you can find more of her wonderful work here:

http://www.corvi-mora.com/gallery/Artists/lynette-yiadom-boakye/19/

Kumukanda is published by Chatto & Windus.

May 11, 2017

image

THE AWKWARD AGE - Francesca Segal

Jagged shapes bump together on the cover of this tale of modern family life. The tension created by the sharp pointed shapes is offset by rich warm colours and soft materials (tissue paper) and the embossed texture provides added depth. In this story two families are united in imperfect harmony. Teenagers, struggling for independence threaten their parents’ relationship. Loyalties are tested, and even grandparents and ex-partners get involved. There is a good deal of conflict, pain and awkwardness, but also humour and love.

May 9, 2017

MEN WITHOUT WOMEN - Haruki Murakami

Dreams are the kinds of things you can … borrow and lend out.

Across seven tales, Haruki Murakami brings his powers of observation to bear on the lives of men who, in their own ways, find themselves alone. There are vanishing cats and smoky bars, lonely hearts and mysterious women, baseball and the Beatles, woven together to tell stories that speak to us all.

I worked up a series of visuals that took as their theme the idea of isolation. I was searching for an image that responded emotionally to the idea of loneliness.

The approved cover features a moon, that appears in the stories and very neatly provides a circle within the design. Circles are a consistent feature of our Murakami covers. The background uses the work of Kate Castelli, a Boston-based artist working in printmaking and book arts. Much of her artwork uses painted or carved lines. Castelli prefers using antique book pages to print on, which she believes has a subtlety and a story that new paper lacks.

Men Without Women is published today by Harvill Secker

May 8, 2017
NEW BOY - Tracy Chevalier
‘She noticed him before anyone else. She was glad of that, held on to it. It made her feel special to have him to herself for a few seconds, before the world around them skipped a beat…‘
Othello brilliantly retold as a 1970s...

NEW BOY - Tracy Chevalier

‘She noticed him before anyone else. She was glad of that, held on to it. It made her feel special to have him to herself for a few seconds, before the world around them skipped a beat…‘

Othello brilliantly retold as a 1970s suburban schoolyard drama. Published this week by Hogarth

May 5, 2017
THE SEVENTH FUNCTION OF LANGUAGE – Laurent Binet
Roland Barthes is knocked down in a Paris street by a laundry van. It’s February 1980 and he has just come from lunch with François Mitterand, a slippery politician locked in a battle for the...

THE SEVENTH FUNCTION OF LANGUAGE – Laurent Binet

Roland Barthes is knocked down in a Paris street by a laundry van. It’s February 1980 and he has just come from lunch with François Mitterand, a slippery politician locked in a battle for the Presidency. Barthes dies soon afterwards. History tells us it was an accident.

But what if it were an assassination?
And what exactly is the Seventh Function of Language?

Author of the multi-award-winning HHHH, Laurent Binet returns with another thrilling novel set in a world of politicians and intellectuals, where eveyone is a suspect and the idea of truth itself is at stake.

The Seventh Function of Language is published this week by Harvill Secker.

May 4, 2017
ADULTS IN THE ROOM - Yanis Varoufakis
What happens when you take on the establishment?
This blistering, personal account by world-famous economist Yanis Varoufakis blows the lid on Europe’s hidden agenda and exposes what actually goes on in its...

ADULTS IN THE ROOM - Yanis Varoufakis

What happens when you take on the establishment?

This blistering, personal account by world-famous economist Yanis Varoufakis blows the lid on Europe’s hidden agenda and exposes what actually goes on in its corridors of power.

Adults in the Room is an urgent wake up call to renew European democracy before it is too late and is published today by The Bodley Head.

Apr 28, 2017
THE THIRST – Jo Nesbo
HARRY HOLE IS BACK! There is great excitement surrounding this new thriller from hugely popular crime writer Jo Nesbo. A vampiric serial killer is loose on the streets of Oslo… the very idea should send a shiver down your spine....

THE THIRST – Jo Nesbo 

HARRY HOLE IS BACK! There is great excitement surrounding this new thriller from hugely popular crime writer Jo Nesbo. A vampiric serial killer is loose on the streets of Oslo… the very idea should send a shiver down your spine. The cover is stark and punchy in black, white and acid yellow, with a velvety super-matt finish. The endpapers feature a map of Oslo, with key locations picked out. Find a safe place to enjoy this deliciously dark read.

Apr 27, 2017
VOID STAR – Zachary Mason
We don’t often get the chance to post science-fiction titles, but this one is a little special - a riveting, beautifully written, fugue-like novel of artificial intelligence, memory, violence and mortality from the author of...

VOID STAR – Zachary Mason

We don’t often get the chance to post science-fiction titles, but this one is a little special - a riveting, beautifully written, fugue-like novel of artificial intelligence, memory, violence and mortality from the author of The Lost Books of the Odyssey.

Set in a dystopian future, the global tides have reversed drowning New York and freezing Tokyo. In the remaining cities, the rich employ private armies – drones to keep out the multitudinous poor – and undergo yearly rejuvenation treatments at exclusive clinics.

Three disparate characters are drawn together: Irina – a freelance AI whisperer; Kern – a favella-dwelling street fighter; and Thales – survivor of an assassination attempt, now fitted with computer chip to keep him alive. None are safe as they are pushed together by forces just out of sight.

Void Star is a visionary, mind-bending trip into the unknown.

Apr 25, 2017

THE CORRESPONDENCE – J. D. Daniels

The amazing quotes just kept coming for this one – so we let them take over the cover.

As the novelist Harry Crews noted – Nothing gets you back in touch with yourself like a little of your own blood. J. D. Daniels more than tests this theory in six letters to nobody in particular as he lurches from ju-jitsu punchbag to janitor, adjunct professor to drunk, exterminator to dutiful son. En route he considers how far books, learning and psychoanalysis can get us, and how much we’re stuck in the mud.

The writing is feverish, witty, intimate and addictive. Get stuck in.

Apr 13, 2017
PUSSY - Howard Jacobson
Pussy is the story of Prince Fracassus, heir presumptive to the Duchy of Origen, famed for its golden-gated skyscrapers and casinos, who passes his boyhood watching reality shows on TV, imagining himself to be the Roman...

PUSSY - Howard Jacobson

Pussy is the story of Prince Fracassus, heir presumptive to the Duchy of Origen, famed for its golden-gated skyscrapers and casinos, who passes his boyhood watching reality shows on TV, imagining himself to be the Roman Emperor Nero, and fantasising about hookers. He is pugnacious, boastful, thin-skinned and egotistic; has no manners, no curiosity, no knowledge, no ideas and no words in which to express them.

Could he, in that case, be the very leader to make the country great again?

Cover and inside illustrations by Chris Riddell

Out today, published by Jonathan Cape

Apr 13, 2017
THE GOLDEN HOUSE - Salman Rushdie
Today we are very pleased to share the jacket for the new novel by Salman Rushdie.
We commissioned Jon Gray to create this striking design for Salman Rushdie’s timely novel about identity, truth, terror and lies.
Jon...

THE GOLDEN HOUSE - Salman Rushdie

Today we are very pleased to share the jacket for the new novel by Salman Rushdie.

We commissioned Jon Gray to create this striking design for Salman Rushdie’s timely novel about identity, truth, terror and lies.

Jon said: ‘The Golden House is the story of the rich and powerful Golden Family and their rise and fall in New York. At the centre of the book is the family mansion in downtown Manhattan. The opulent bird-cage seemed like a good way to represent both the family and their lives, and turning it into a New York townhouse seemed too good an opportunity to miss. It was such fun to make! The open door and scattered feathers hopefully hint at something else, without giving too much away. Printing the fine bars of the cage over the type gives the cover some depth and helps to integrate the very flat illustration. I loved this book and I’m very pleased with the way the cover turned out.’

Apr 10, 2017
FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE – Ian Fleming
To celebrate the 60th anniversary of this James Bond classic, Ian Fleming publications are offering a unique chance for budding designers to show off their skills – design your own cover for From Russia With Love...

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE – Ian Fleming

To celebrate the 60th anniversary of this James Bond classic, Ian Fleming publications are offering a unique chance for budding designers to show off their skills – design your own cover for From Russia With Love and share it on twitter, tagging @TheIanFleming and you win a limited Bentley edition of Casino Royale, worth £750. The competition closes on the 18th April 2017.

In the meantime as inspiration, here’s a little Bond history…

Main image: Our latest edition designed by Suzanne Dean. The CMYK team designed the rest of the series - check out the link:

http://vintagebooksdesign.tumblr.com/post/27630753986/vintage-007-behind-the-scenes

Small images, top left: The original cover for the first edition by artist Richard Chopping, published in 1957. It was Chopping’s first Bond book (the covers to previous books in the series had been designed by Pat Marriott and Ian Fleming himself), and therefore the first to adopt this iconic ‘trompe l’oeil’ style. The rose with a dew drop was part of Fleming’s request for the cover, and the gun (a Smith & Wesson .38 M&P special revolver with a sawn barrel) was sent to the artist at Fleming’s request by Geoffrey Boothroyd - the character that Major Boothroyd of Q branch was based on. Fleming had asked Boothroyd to send his favourite gun to Chopping, so it is not actually a gun that is wielded in the text.

Second: This is a US Library edition, published by Macmillan in 1957. The cover depicts the fight between Bond and Red Grant on the Orient Express in a really interesting style, referencing train schematics and an almost stencil-like use of silhouette.

Third: This cover, showing James Bond with Tatiana Romanova, is from the first UK paperback edition published by Great Pan in 1959. This depiction of Tatiana strays fairly significantly from the interior descriptions, however Bond is well represented, with his ‘unruly comma of hair’ and chamois leather holster. The cover suggests a pacey narrative through the placement of the speeding Orient Express at the base, and the strapline ‘Death-trap for James Bond’ is simple yet full of menace and intrigue.  

Fourth: The first US paperback of the book comes from 1960, published by Signet. Interestingly, there is no mention of James Bond himself on the cover, and instead we are treated to some enticing reviews: ‘Upper Crust Low Life…Mickey Spillane in gentleman’s clothing.’ Fitting this description, the imagery is more suggestive of pulp or noir than cold war espionage. However, the top left corner features the gun and rose motif from the UK first edition design by Richard Chopping.  

Middle left: Another Great Pan paperback entry, this time published in the UK in 1962. The Orient Express bisects the background of abstract, flame-like strokes, which in turn encircle and draw the eye to Tatiana in the foreground. Here she is depicted closer to how Fleming described, and the artist has emphasised her ‘Russian’ look through her attire. The book has received a new strapline: ‘DEATH WITH DISHONOUR is Russia’s sentence for JAMES BOND’, perfectly outlining SMERSH’s evil plan.

Second: In 1965, Pan released a new set of UK paperbacks with covers either by, or influenced by, Raymond Hawkey. The Fabergé egg with the film inside isn’t directly from the novel, however the plot revolves around Bond being caught (and filmed) in a honey trap set up by SMERSH so it is evocative of surveillance and deception within an alluring and emblematically Soviet exterior.

Third: This ‘still life’ cover was published in 1974, as part of a set of editions in which significant items from the plots of the books were showcased in a photographic portrait. The dagger is from the ‘gipsy wrestling match’, the Turkish delight is referencing Turkey (and the code word which Bond is told to follow in the novel). It also alludes to the honey trap orchestrated by Rosa Klebb in which Bond will be caught by Tatiana. As a departure from the previous editions, it is Klebb and not Tatiana who features on the cover, face pierced by the wooden fork. The arrangement also shows Turkish money and Turkish coffee.

Fourth: This edition from Thomas and Mercer was published in the US in 2012. The artist is Archie Ferguson, and the design fits perfectly into the series where the black and white pattern evocative of classic Russian decoration is highlighted by the brilliant red of the title and the 007 in the circle.

Bottom left: The Folio Society illustrated edition features a cover created by artist Fay Dalton. Bond boards the Orient Express, joining Tatiana who is eagerly awaiting him as they attempt to flee the evil clutches of SMERSH.  A plume of steam from the train obscures Bond’s face and suggests uncertainty and deception.

Bottom Middle: This edition was published in 2008 by Queen Anne Press, available as part of The Complete Works of Ian Fleming. Designed by Webb & Webb and finely-bound by Shepherds, Sangorski & Sutcliffe, the Orient Express is shown speeding away from Istanbul, represented by Hagia Sophia. The red star, a symbol associated with Russia, is seen on the top left of the back cover.

Bottom Right: This edition is the German adaptation of the UK edition first released by Penguin in 2008, Ian Fleming’s centenary year. One of a full set of the novels illustrated by Michael Gillette which featured the principal female lead of each book. Tatiana appears on the cover in red, a colour symbolic of Cold War Russia. This is the Cross Cult German edition, for which Gillette amended the cover with bespoke typography for the German market. The German title of the novel has always featured ‘Moscow’ in place of ‘Russia’.

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