After clearing my desk at Sphere Books on Friday afternoon, Monday morning found me sitting down at a corner desk of the Riverside Studios in Fulham. Perched on the north bank of the Thames with a view of Brompton reservoir and the most spectacular sunsets in West London, I was now a Senior Designer at Slatter-Anderson.
The announcement that Penguin Books were to take over Sphere, my first professional home, arrived hard on the heels of the euphoria of my first Frankfurt Book Fair. The chaff from the rumour mill finally drifted down to the ground floor design department revealing that our death knell had been, of all things, Christmas.
From a tender age I have loved cartoons. From Top Cat to The Flintstones, Roobarb and Custard to Asterix, I loved the anarchy and the invention. I have already written about my work with Ed McClachlan and, during my time at Sphere Books I went on to draw a number of cartoons for covers and company Christmas cards for Sphere and some of our suppliers. One morning I got a message to see Barbara Boote, Sphere’s Head of Editorial; with no idea what was in the wind, off I trod…
For relatively small publishers, like Sphere Books, there are always a few authors about whose axis the company’s survival often revolves. Prolific, high-profile, bestselling… Danielle Steel was just such an author for Sphere where she had full cover approval and maintained a very tight control on all design decisions.
During my time at Sphere Books I designed a series by Peter Tinniswood, which afforded me the opportunity, not only to design, but also draw all the cover images. An unlooked for, but hugely rewarding moment!