“Kit Thackeray was born in Deal, Kent and worked for Southern Television before joining George Adamson and lions in Kenya. He has filmed all over Africa , has been up the Nile, driven across Brazil and most of Australasian and now lives abroad” That was taken from the blurb inside the two books of his PAN published which you can see HERE They are examples of a cover I like and one I’m not that bothered about, can you guess which one is which? I do like part of the endorsement in ‘Crownbird’ which says ‘It would make a good in-flight read if there was absolutely nothing else available’
With so many covers being photographs from the 1970s onwards, as in the above, although not my thing I still look out for historical fiction as, along with S/F, they still tend to have painted covers. Having picked up a bundle of Jean Stubbs novels it was good to see at least two of the three cover artists were familiar names, namely Gary Keane and Colin Backhouse. Jean Stubbs (23/10/1926 to 19/10/2012) was born Jean Yvonne Higham in Denton, Lancashire and went to Manchester High School for Girls, the Manchester School of Art and Loreburn Secretarial College in Manchester. She worked as a copywriter from 1964 to 1966 and was a reviewer for Books and Bookmen from 1965 to 1976. She died in the Helston, Cornwall
Mentioning Colin Backhouse reminds me of the two Futura books by Flora Pearce for which he painted the covers. The reason I was interested in these is that they are set locally to me and often mention the railway that ran through the village. This is now disused and has become a Greenway called the McClean Way named after the Victorian engineer who built it in 1849. I am one of the old fogies that look after it and can be found down there most Mondays and is much better since it got an upgraded surface last Easter. Just trying to remember which local celebrity they got to cut the ribbon at the opening? Ah Yes, it was me!
If any one finds themselves at a loose end in Wolverhampton then the Pop Up Bookshop is back in the Community Hub in the Mander Centre until 21st March. Opening hours are Monday to Friday 10am to 5pm, Saturday 9.30am to 5pm, Sunday 11am to 4pm.