You're never alone with a good book…
Back in 2008, I was in the reception at the book publishers I worked at in East Sussex – the now defunct Ivy Press. Fran (the receptionist) knew I was a bit of a geek and into fantasy art. I’d started there the year before, after leaving the Pre-Press Department of The Argus newspaper. That – in itself – was a stroke of luck. I was working on getting the job ads ready for the paper, on the day the job came in; I had my CV ready that night and handed it to the manager, Chris Morris personally, on the morning it came out. I was hired pretty-much straight away.
This older gent walked in carrying a rather huge canvas. He looked sort of familiar but I couldn’t really place him.
Fran pipes up, “Hey Roger, John here’s a big fan of your work!” It was one of those life-changing conversations.
It was Roger Dean – local legend (he lives near Lewes); creator of the artwork for Yes, Asia, Virgin Records, Psygnosis and was most famously – allegedly (sadly the case was thrown out of a New York courthouse) – plagiarised by James Cameron for Avatar (floating islands… seriously!), a movie that I have never seen on principle. He also worked with the Cliffe Bonfire Society on their Bonfire Night programmes (which is something I can say I’ve done as well!).
The book ‘Dragon’s Dream’ was originally designed by Roger’s brother Martin. However, it needed a bit of a reheat. The Ivy Press back then worked with publishing houses across the world – creating ideas and then selling them to the likes of Metro Books, Barnes & Noble, Grange Books, The Chris Beetles Gallery and the Findhorn Press (which has more recently been quite important in my life – due to living five miles away… a far cry from East Sussex).
The arguments between Roger and the Creative Director about how it should look (they were both stood behind me – arguing – while I worked) were a little heated. A few other things made the job a little painful but we got there. I had three days to re-typeset the entire book before it went to print in China (which meant sending the files on seven CDs).
It was quite a mammoth job; but I'm very proud of the results. I worked with him again, on a revised version of ‘The Album Cover Album’ but not to the same extent.
My favourite parts of this job were setting up the cover with Spot UV and embossing; and typesetting a 228-page book.
Ten years later, at an event held by Trading Boundaries where Roger was exhibiting his work, we caught up (having a bit of a laugh about what happened to the company after I left) and he signed the book for me. I’d been given a file copy and it’s one of my most treasured possessions (OK, the dust jacket is a little battered but it’s all still in good order).
As well as some of the pages (and epic dustjacket) from Dragon’s Dream, there’s a small collection of some of the other books I worked on during my time at the Ivy Press (one of the most crazy being ‘Rediscover Your Heart’ by Fred Matser – with an Foreword by Mikhail Gorbachev and Afterword by Deepak Chopra… quite a combination, for the Findhorn Press).
