Wednesday 4 May 2011

Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy

Sorry for the pun--I couldn't resist after I saw these gorgeous new covers for John Le Carre's books coming in June from Penguin US. They're by the artist Matt Taylor.








A Perfect Spy is especially good, but they're all excellent.

The only other cover design by Taylor that I know of is this beautiful cover for a ho-hum and deeply unconvincing book.

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9 comments:

  1. Jonathan Walker4 May 2011 at 20:00

    Agreed! 'A Prefect Spy' is not only the most successful on its own terms, but also successfully exemplifies the story. 'Tinker, Tailor ...' is also smashing though.

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  2. Chasch5 May 2011 at 00:59

    These are really stunning. It's also about time Le Carré's backlist got beautiful, original covers, instead of the usual fuzzy black and white photographs usually reserved for this type of novel.

    Also, maybe it's just because the first name is written sideways, but the placement of the type reminds me of the way the author's name and title are written on the covers for the Philip Kerr books: http://us.penguingroup.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780399155307,00.html?A_Quiet_Flame_Philip_Kerr#

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  3. JRSM5 May 2011 at 01:37

    Jonathan: It's ideal, isn't it?

    Chasch: They match very well. Interestingly, that image on the Kerr cover also appears on the Vintage US edition of Chandler's 'Farewell, My Lovely': http://tinyurl.com/chandlerkerr

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  4. Chasch5 May 2011 at 03:30

    I've come to expect nothing less than for you to find matching book cover images to anything we show you...

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  5. matt t5 May 2011 at 05:09

    thanks for the kind comments about these, good to know that people are digging them!

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  6. Matthew Adams5 May 2011 at 15:19

    These are great!

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  7. Amy June Bates6 May 2011 at 03:19

    These are fabulous!

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    ReplyDelete