Pen and ink illustrations by Bill Greer for Boris Pasternak’s poems from Doctor Zhivago. They were issued as a single volume in 1969, and followed David Lean’s film from the year before with Julie Christie and Omar Sharif. The stills are taken from Lean’s film. I remember Doctor Zhivago being screened on a Sunday evening … Continue reading Winter in July – Dr Zhivago and Pasternak’s poems, 1968
John Wyndham’s science fiction appeared throughout the 1950s into a world gaining perspective on the second world war and the epic destruction of the atom bomb. Many of the novels take place in a recognisable England of leafy villages with a rooted capital. The previous decade had seen the certainties of this world swept away … Continue reading Fear in the fifties – John Wyndham and The Day of the Triffids
Graphics by Hans Riebesehl from a beautifully designed tour guide to Hamburg, Germany which dates from around 1956. It’s fascinating to see an original that could be equally at home today, or in the mid-eighties, when this kind of font was hand-in-glove with the rebirth of black and white photography. Does that mean we’re living … Continue reading Scenes from the 1950s – the art of triple retro
This is almost a film from the forties in book form – I’m thinking of A Canterbury Tale in the sense that it echoes the opening titles. You can hear the peal of bells and the fonts are as crisp as if lit by the silver screen, ancient art and (for the time) modern technology … Continue reading October 1941: Cries of London
Some of David Gentleman’s most striking illustration appeared during the 1970s, though as a child I never connected the images to an artist. Now I know his work was everywhere in my world – not only in books, but on stamps, plates and even on the London Underground at Charing Cross. Maybe that’s why I … Continue reading David Gentleman’s storms and tempests
Some would ever be where they’re not, Would ever have what they’ve not got. True happiness – contented mind Sufficient near at hand will find. Absorbing interests lie all round, Will by observant mind be found. Create something however small, There lies the truest joy of all, When brain and hand together strive, Real happiness … Continue reading Charles Paget Wade and Snowshill Manor
My dog has no concept of getting older. Life is waking, going outdoors, checking for affronts to his sense of territory, cocking a leg on a plant pot, taking a crap under the apple tree. There is food, the possibility of being taken out. There is a nap, more checking of territory. Food. Another nap. … Continue reading Dogs have their days
WHISTLES IN THE WIND 