It has a wonderful central character, Tory Pace; the narrative is the work of a quirky and darkly comic imagination; and the book possesses an exceptional thematic elegance. But, perhaps above all, Nourishment brilliantly conjures up a time and place with a mix of period detail and historical authenticity.
Set in the Second World War in a world of rationing and abstinence and then in post-war austerity Britain, Nourishment is a novel about food and sex - mostly it is about the lack of food and lack of sex (where bombed-out butchers' shops become opportunities for low-level looting and sex-starved POWs can only survive with the help of the most erotic correspondence from their loved ones). The period detail is spot on, and we really wanted to produce a book which reflected this.
So when we embarked on that tricky process of finding a cover for the book, as well as the typeface and other design elements we really wanted the detail to be equally accurate and authentic.
Richard Evans located a fabulous poster for Max Factor lipstick which represented the period perfectly. We chose a font from 1937, Coronet, for our title lettering which seemed to fit the design and the illustration style.
Author
Picador |