Meet the designers behind the Booker Prize 2022's bespoke bound books
Meet the designers behind the Booker Prize 2022's bespoke bound books
- Published
For the past three decades, the six authors shortlisted for the Booker Prize have been presented with a unique, bespoke edition of their book. The books are created by members of the Designer Bookbinders society
This year, each bookbinder had just over a month - between the shortlist announcement on September 6 and the winner ceremony on October 17 - to make their one-off edition. The process would usually take several months.
Each book takes around 150 hours of work to create; there are at least 25 stages to hand-binding a book, including the decoration of the edges of the pages and the final lettering.
Below, meet the bookbinders behind this year’s creations.
The six bespoke editions of 2022's shortlisted books
Lester Capon created The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida
Lester Capon began bookbinding in the 1970s at Camberwell School of Art and Crafts. He is a Fellow of Designer Bookbinders and works partly as a design binder and partly as a restorer of early books. He is occasionally found conserving early manuscripts kept in the rock-hewn churches in the mountains of Ethiopia. His work is represented in many public and private collections including the British Library and Pierpoint Morgan Library, New York.
Bookbinder Lester Capon hands the specially bound edition of The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida to Booker Prize 2022 winner Shehan Karunatilaka
© David Parry/Booker Prize Foundation
Kaori Maki created Glory
Kaori Maki was born in Japan but spent most of her childhood in Singapore. In 2001 she moved to London and enrolled in bookbinding classes with Midori Kunikara-Cockram at Jade Studio and later with Mark Cockram at Studio 5. In 2020, partnering with two colleagues, Kaori took over the ownership of the Wyvern Bindery. In the same year, she was elected a fellow of Designer Bookbinders.
Bookbinder Kaori Maki hands the specially bound edition of Glory to NoViolet Bulawayo at the Booker Prize 2022
© David Parry/Booker Prize Foundation
Dominic Riley created Treacle Walker
Dominic Riley is a self-employed bookbinder and teacher. He has created over 80 Design Bindings to date, which are in collections worldwide. In 2013 he won first prize — the Sir Paul Getty award — in the Designer Bookbinders international competition, and his winning binding was acquired by the Bodleian Library in Oxford.
Bookbinder Dominic Riley holds the specially bound edition of Booker Prize 2022 shortlisted title Treacle Walker by Alan Garner
© David Parry/Booker Prize Foundation
Rachel Ward-Sale created Oh William!
Rachel Ward-Sale studied Art, Design and Bookbinding at The University of Brighton. In 2005 she was elected a Fellow of Designer Bookbinders serving as President from 2019-2021. Since leaving college, she has worked as a self-employed bookbinder co-founding Bookbinders of Lewes in 1992. She undertakes a wide variety of projects and commissions as well as teaching bookbinding at her studio and other venues.
Bookbinder Rachel Ward-Sale holds the specially bound edition she created of Booker Prize 2022 shortlisted title Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout
© David Parry/Booker Prize Foundation
Kate Holland created The Trees
Kate Holland’s love affair with books started as a child living near Hay on Wye. She now works from a converted cowshed, on the outskirts of Frome, and specialises in contemporary fine binding. Her books are in collections at the British Library, V&A, Bodleian Library, RIBA, Soane Collection, Walker Library of Human Imagination and Yale University as well as many public and private collections internationally.
Bookbinder Kate Holland hands the bespoke bound edition of The Trees to Percival Everett for the Booker Prize 2022
© David Parry/Booker Prize Foundation
Angela James created Small Things Like These
After studying at Glasgow School of Art, Angela James worked at the Cockerell Bindery in Grantchester and then helped to set up The Eddington Bindery near Hungerford before becoming self-employed and moving to North Yorkshire. She is a Fellow and past-President of Designer Bookbinders and has been involved with the bindings for the Booker Prize since 1991.
Bookbinder Angela James holds the specially bound edition of shortlisted novel Small Things Like These, created for Claire Keegan, left
© David Parry/Booker Prize Foundation
