1st June 2012

David Hempleman-Adams

An older shot of the British explorer from around 2002. It was a rather comical situation at this shoot as my car broke down on the way and I arrived on the back of low loader. I have no recollection how I got home….!

31st May 2012

Jeffery Deaver

A recent shot of the prolific US author taken in central London. As well as being a hugely successful mystery and crime writer with more than 30 novels to his name, he recently wrote the James Bond thriller Carte Blanche. He has a new book, XO, out this month.

5th May 2012

Anne Berry - The Water Children

Cover of Anne Berry’s novel, The Water Children, arrived this morning from publishers Simon & Schuster in New York. It was shot on East Sands, St.Andrews a couple of years ago. A big thanks to Matt who modelled here. 

23rd April 2012

Stephen May - Life! Death! Prizes!

Out this week, a cover of Stephen May’s very well received novel Life! Death! Prizes! published by Bloomsbury. It’s a family tale about a 19 year old boy Billy looking after his younger brother Oscar, after the senseless murder of their mother in a bungled street robbery. “By turns bleak, funny and tender” said reviewer Christopher Wakling. “Echoes of JD Salinger and Dave Eggers.” said Monique Roffey. 

Great cover design from Greg Heimnimann. The image was shot in Northamptonshire a couple of years ago. A big thanks to Freddie for modelling. 

19th April 2012

Cormac McCarthy - The Sunset Limited

Cover shot of US reprint of McCarthy’s novel/play The Sunset Limited. It is one of two plays he has written and involves two nameless characters “White” and “Black” in reference to their skin colours. It’s all set in one New York apartment, with much discourse on death, suffering and the existence of God - with the odd cup of coffee thrown in I’m guessing! 

Anyway, the photo was taken in rural Kent, England on a very cold spring Sunday morning, half a world away from the hurly-bulry of ‘the city that never sleeps’. 

13th February 2012

Mary Wesley - The Vacillations of Poppy Carew

A Vintage reprint of Wesley’s celebrated 1986 novel from a couple of years ago, this cover shot was taken on the embankment overlooking Putney. I was coming back into London on a very hot summer evening with my assistant Sarah, who worked with me at that time.  We stopped to take a few shots into the sun. It was only recently I became aware that the same spot, to within yards, had been used to film Gregory Peck in the horror film The Omen back in the 1970s. But then you all knew that..

31st January 2012

The Grass Arena - John Healy

“Sober, precise, grotesque, violent, sad, charming and hilarious all at once” is how the Literary Review describes this gritty and disturbing autobiography of homeless alcoholic John Healy. Raised in a religious home, the book describes his descent from a young lad drawn to boxing as a way to defend himself from an abusive father, through to a life of crime and jail, ending up sleeping rough on the streets of London. 

The book was first published in 1988 but re-printed in 2008 under the ‘Modern Classics’ division of Penguin with my South London bench shot on the cover. Although the writing is a little rough in places, it’s an eye-opening read that bears comparison with Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris and London. 

26th January 2012

Steven Berkoff – Tough Acts

I’ve blogged about this book before but it still irks so I’ll post again….

 In the late 90s I was commissioned by one of the new breed of contract publishers to photograph the actor Stephen Berkoff for the cover of a forthcoming Docklands property magazine. The director of the company, who also edited several of its titles including one about homes abroad, blagged the interview on the basis of being at acting school with Berkoff. Whether Berkoff actually remembered the somewhat shambolic editor when we got to his riverside studio in Limehouse seemed unlikely.

 Known for his spikiness towards photographers and media types in general, I was somewhat apprehensive about the shoot. However, it went with well and Berkoff was surprisingly open and humorous. The pictures were duly used on the cover and the chaotic editor seemed pleased. Berkoff even called for some prints.

 Three months later, no fee seemed to be forthcoming and after a blitz of final demands and phone calls, it became evident the contract publisher was no more. A winding up letter soon after confirmed it. Hey, ho, I thought, it’s not the first time and probably won’t be the last. However, to rub salt into the wound, I heard the editor/failed director on BBC London the following week giving his advice on buying homes in Greece and how he was considering buying one himself!

 Fast forward 8 or 9 years and I was mooching around a charity shop in Balham, South London and what should jump out at me but this book – Tough Acts, Memories of Working with….  Unsurprisingly there was no credit on the cover photograph and a small statement tucked away said..”The author has made every reasonable effort to contact all copyright holders …blah blah….Anyone who has not been contacted is invited to write to the publishers…” A search on my return home, showed the publisher Robson Books had followed the magazine publisher into oblivion a year or two earlier! Quite where it got the prints for the cover remains a mystery……… of sorts!

 Anyway demand for the book remains muted. Prices on Amazon start at 6p. 

20th January 2012

Sophie Hannah - Pas De Berceuse Pour Fanny

The last of a recent batch of French covers. This is a translation of Manchester poet and novelist’s Sophie Hannah’s first book of crime fiction, Little Face ,which was published recently in France. I won’t attempt any further translation or I’ll surely be called up for misrepresentation, except to say children and a scariness are involved!

This shot is part of a longer series of images entitled Mr Wandle, based on the area near where I live. 

18th January 2012

A shot from a recent visit to the Côte d’Opale in northern France

17th January 2012

Guillaume Lebeau - Le Troisiéme Pole

Another cover from France arrived this morning, this time from the publisher Marabout. My French is even worse this week but, from the blurb, it seems Lebeau’s novel which came out in November, is a thriller set on Spritzbergen island and involves a climatologist desperately trying to reach her father and find out about his secret research. Oh there also appears to be the discovery of a heavily tattooed corpse, stuck in the ice. What novel these days is complete without a heavily tattooed woman!

Anyway the original picture wasn’t taken anywhere near the north pole …I set it up in the studio and without going into too many details, no animals or humans were harmed in the process!

12th January 2012

Jeffery Deaver - Roadside Crosses

In 2009 I was commissioned to photograph this cover for the publisher Hodder Headline. Below are two of the images that I shot to a brief. The top one was taken on a farm track in Northamptonshire, a location I had recce’d several years before. The second was near my home in South London. 

Deaver is a profilic and hugely successful crime pulp novelist who has recently turned his hand to writing the latest James Bond novel, Carte Blanche. This book, part of the Kathryn Dance detective series, is the tale of a serial killer who leaves roadside crosses on America’s west coast, with clues pointing to his intended victims. 

Most covers I have been involved in use images that only suggest at the story line and are usually one offs. However the art director on this cover was looking to match others already published in the series and give a dark foreboding image, looking at least somewhat American. However trying to get a location in the UK, particularly in mid-winter on very short notice, to look like a semi-suburban Californian highway on a summer evening is tricky. 

Although I am not too wild about the design of the cover, it’s interesting to note that this book sold extremely well and was top of the bestseller charts for several weeks. Maybe designers of pulp covers know what they are doing after all!

11th January 2012

I stopped to take Polaroids on the way home

11th January 2012

Helene Couturier - Tu L’Aimais Quand Tu M’As Fait?

Another cover from a recent batch published in France.  This edition of Courturier’s novel comes out on Friday and from my basic level of French I understand it is a ‘romantic tale based on the problems of sharing child custody..’

This was shot on Holkham Beach, Norfolk about five years ago. If you haven’t been to Holkham, it’s worth a trip. One of Britain’s finest beaches.