(1974, Abacus)
“The hearse stood outside the block of flats, waiting for the old lady.”
It’s been said that you must not judge a book by its cover – but I can’t help it. I am highly susceptible to aesthetic appeal (aren’t we all?) and presentation acts as a shorthand to what I can expect inside. I’ve longed for many books simply because they look sumptuous or unusual.
Based on previous covers I had seen, I had been uninterested in Beryl Bainbridge. I had assumed her to be rather oldfashioned and stuffy. Beryl didn’t seem like a very cool name – I associated it with an unattractive, unpleasant and irritating character in The Beano. Then, during my work experience at Little, Brown, relatively soon after her death, I learned more about her and her books, and became taken with the striking style of her recently reissued repertoire. The author herself looked downright sassy in her photo. So I revised my earlier, shallow opinion and especially looked forward to tackling her Apocalypse Book.
Apocalypse Book 
