Caustic Cover Critic Considers Canongate Canons

Another repackaging-of-classics exercise is the imminent set of 12 (though I can only find 11) 'Canons' from Scottish publisher Canongate. They look rather nice: I like the use of white space, and the way that the cover image in every case is almost but not quite obliterated, leaving just enough visible to make it clear what you're looking at. It's especially effective given the nature of the books chosen--there's nothing much in common there other than the publisher, but this group identity works for all of them, I think.

The Spark Collected Sories was actually also announced as a forthcoming Penguin Modern Classic this year, but has quietly vanished from the Penguin line-up. I wonder what conversation took place when somebody suddenly realised that they didn't actually have the rights...

By the way, I need to say that I miss the old Canongate Classics: a huge variety of great Scottish literary works that have mostly gone out of print now that Canongate seem focused on international fiction. I guess they were a money-loser, but it's always a shame when neglected-then-resurrected books that deserve to be read end up becoming neglected again (see also most of what used to be available as Virago Modern Classics).