Captain Corelli’s Mandolin

Louis de Bernieres Cover design by Jeff Fisher

Vintage 1998

Books change their covers with alarming regularity these days, as publishers target new markets. It is, however, sometimes possible for bestsellers, due to their huge popularity and the publisher’s fear of losing the “recognition factor”, to become synonymous with the first-edition cover, a phenomenon perhaps more typical of the relationship between pop music and its packaging.

Jeff Fisher’s lyrical, illustrative 1998 design for Captain Corelli’s Mandolin falls into that category, despite the availability of a film tie-in version three years later.

Another most interesting piece from the weekend edition of the FT this by Phil Baines, Professor of typography at Central St.Martins, London.

Read Phil's full coments and also have a look at the other book reviews and comment on www.ft.com/arts/books It is a site well worth a look. And for me it was great reading on the long flight across the Pacific from the US west coast.