Inferno
Inferno, a novel by Larry
Niven about a Science Fiction writer's walk through
Hell, was the first hardback Science Fiction book
cover the Artist created, (for W.H. Allen Publishers in
1977 in London) and it then appeared on subsequent
paperback editions around the world. It also led on to
other work with the paperback division of W.H. Allen.
The events are etched in the mind of the
Artist because of a chance meeting with a Dalek and a
meeting in an unusual Art Director's office . . .
. 
"W.H. Allen had a grand set of offices
just off London's Park Lane and amongst its various
endeavors was the publication of the Doctor Who
paperback tie-ins to the TV Series. Outside the entrance
to the publisher's office, at the top of the steps down
to the street, stood a Dalek. Silver. Black orbs on its
sides. Shiny. It felt strange to actually see one in
physical form rather than two-dimensional on the TV
screen. As I walked down the steps (marble ones that did
not rattle or reverberate with footfall) the Dalek's eye
probe dropped down and glared after me -
intimidating! "After a few months, the new paperback
imprint, Star Books, needed "cover treatment
establishment" and the equally new Art Director phoned
to ask me to "come over and see me at the paperback
division" and duly gave me another upmarket address.
"When I arrived I could not
find the door to "the office" - because there wasn't
one! Puzzled by being confronted by a
corrugated garage door and nothing else I wondered
what to do next. While wondering, suddenly, the garage
door flew upwards and inside was a very large and
quite dark garage with concrete floor and nothing else
much, except, a desk with an angle poise lamp on
it. "Hello.
Sorry about the office. We're expanding, and we
haven't had time to sort an office yet". Actually,
Peter knew the Art Director from a previous company
he'd worked at and so a good laugh was had all round
and a goodly number of cover design jobs followed . .
. . . . . . Deborah
Vernell Jones
