One of the highlights of the annual Booker Prize season comes when each of the shortlisted authors is presented with a unique, hand-bound edition of their nominated works, created by Fellows from the Designer Bookbinders society. These extraordinary, one-of-a-kind books are designed and made between the shortlist announcement and winner ceremony. Each book is the result of around 150 hours of dedicated work and the process, which involves at least 25 distinct stages, including the decoration of the edges of the pages and the final lettering, would normally take up to four months. This year it took around two.

Below, we meet the designers behind this year’s creations and ask them how they began bookbinding, and how they made this year’s stunning books, which will be presented to the shortlisted authors at the winner ceremony on November 12, 2024.

What do you enjoy most about being a bookbinder, and how would you describe your work and style? Has it evolved over time?

My route into bookbinding is different from the majority of Fellows of Designer Bookbinders as I really only took up the craft after retiring as a sound designer in BBC radio drama. Although I’d had a very creative and enjoyable job there was always a certain amount of frustration that my work disappeared into the ether, apart from the odd repeat! So for me, bookbinding is the opportunity to craft something that will hopefully last for hundreds of years. I enjoy binding with varied book structures so I don’t have a particular style – although there is often some gold tooling to be found somewhere! 

What excites you most about being part of the Booker Prize shortlist bookbindings this year? How does the process differ from other bookbinding projects?

This is my first time doing a Booker binding so it is tremendously exciting – if rather nerve-racking! As I’m sure all binders will agree, the main challenge is the time factor. Not so much in the actual making, but rather in thinking time. I normally choose the book that I am going to bind so I may have been mulling over the text for some months before actually beginning to sketch out the design. For the Booker binding, I read the synopses of the longlist but did no further reading before the shortlist was announced. Part of the challenge is having no idea which book you will be allocated.

How did the theme or tone of The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden influence your design choices? What techniques did you apply to your final design?

One could argue that The Safekeep has three main characters: Isabel, Eva, and the house that Isabel has lived in since they evacuated from Amsterdam during the war, when she was still a child. Not wanting to give too much away about the end of the novel, I decided to concentrate on the house and how it gradually changes from being almost like a benign prison for Isabel, to finally becoming a place of joy. To that end, the design is a geometric design of different shades of red leather, like a floor plan. Superimposed on that are the outlines of doors and windows. The back board has darker reds and is tooled in cool palladium to reflect Isabel’s character and her emphasis on order and routine, a life that will be disrupted by the arrival of Eva. There is also a reference to the fact that various items in the house start to go missing. By contrast, the front board is tooled in gold leaf to express the burgeoning love between Isabel and Eva.

How do you see the craft of bookbinding evolving? Are there any contemporary trends or innovations in the field that inspire or challenge you?

I am very interested in new book structures, of which there have been many recently. My last three design bindings have been non-traditional – however, it is always important to ensure that a particular structure is not chosen for its own sake but as a response to the text and the design. The Safekeep is fairly traditional in its construction as that was what suited my overall design. As for materials, I’m fascinated to see how the development of mushroom-based leather proceeds. I suspect that with further advances in technology, it will soon become a viable material for use in bookbinding.

What do you enjoy most about being a bookbinder, and how would you describe your work and style? Has it evolved over time? 

One of the many reasons I fell in love with bookbinding is that there is always something new to learn. It’s a craft that possesses a vat of skills, techniques, materials, history and structures with which you can submerge yourself. My work is often colourful, which is influenced by the written word, emotion and art. My work varies depending on the voice within the book I am binding. I feel like it is only natural to evolve – the more you learn and refine your craft – and it becomes apparent within your pieces.

What excites you most about being part of the Booker Prize shortlist bookbindings this year? How does the process differ from other bookbinding projects?

It is always an honour to bind one of the shortlisted books. This will be my fourth year and it feels as electric, terrifying and exciting as the first time I was part of it. Each binder has a small window in which to read the book, design it and then execute it – one can’t linger or explore an idea. You have to harvest as much as you can from the text and run with it. No room for error. It’s all-consuming in the best possible way. 

How did the theme or tone of Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner influence your design choices? What techniques did you apply to your final design?

We don’t get to choose our books but I always read the synopses of the longlisted books as soon as they’re released. I selected six that I like the sound of and Rachel Kushner’s Creation Lake was one I had underlined and highlighted. I was thrilled when it arrived.

Due to the time frame we have, when I read the book I sketch down words, sentences and themes which create very clear pictures in my mind – almost movie-like imagery. The strongest image becomes the foundation on which the rest is built – in this case it was Neanderthal art. I wanted my design to be reminiscent of a Neanderthal cave which included the other chosen elements; poplar trees, magnesium crystals, water and corn, colours of anarchy (black and red), the big and little dippers with Polaris. I also included the French flag colours within the hand-sewn endband. The leather and the paper doublures within have been dyed with leather dyes via a dip pen, mini atomisers and foam.

What do you enjoy most about being a bookbinder, and how would you describe your work and style? Has it evolved over time?

The fact that we bookbinders work every day with techniques, tools and skills which have been used, largely unchanged, for around five hundred years fascinates me. There have of course been numerous innovations and new materials introduced, though I am largely a traditionalist, mainly using good quality goat leather for my bindings – albeit with alternative and more creative decorative styles that continue to evolve. Bookbinding is also a very close-knit, supportive and generous community, especially in the UK, so advice and encouragement are always available, should you need it.

What excites you most about being part of the Booker Prize shortlist bookbindings this year? How does the process differ from other bookbinding projects?

This is the first time I have been involved with the Booker Prize and I am thrilled to have the opportunity to help show off the art and craft of design bindings to a wide audience. The limited timescale involved in producing a Booker binding may inform or restrict my choices a little when exploring a design, but it is quite liberating to have complete freedom over the interpretation of the text and the creative process of designing the binding.

How did the theme or tone of Orbital by Samantha Harvey influence your design choices? What techniques did you apply to your final design?

I have always been interested in space and astronomy so I was thrilled to have been allocated Orbital to bind. I explored a number of design possibilities before deciding on the approach I would take, and the way the book is structured around 16 orbits of the Earth was a great place to start. Airbrushing is a favourite technique for me and here I also used inlays and craquelle decoration when creating representative aspects of what the characters might see from their spacecraft window. The doublures represent Carl Sagan’s ‘pale blue dot’, referred to in the book as Samantha so brilliantly demonstrates how small our existence is in the cosmic scheme.

How do you see the craft of bookbinding evolving? Are there any contemporary trends or innovations in the field that inspire or challenge you?

I am sure that the craft of hand bookbinding will never stop evolving, though it’s always going to be rooted in traditional techniques. New materials and tools are coming along all the time and binders continue to create innovative and interesting book structures. I struggle a little with the current trend of home vinyl-cutting machines which many hobbyists are using to decorate their book covers but which, in my view, can be detrimental to the pursuit of craftsmanship and traditional hand skills. Having said that, new innovations like this frequently come along and eventually find their place or are adapted and developed to join the ever-expanding creative armoury we binders have at our disposal.

What do you enjoy most about being a bookbinder, and how would you describe your work and style? Has it evolved over time?

The art of making the book is something I cherish. Perhaps a simple definition of the book is; a portable written or printed work consisting of pages glued or sewn together along one side and bound in covers. The book, in one form or another, has been part of our existence for thousands of years. Historical, regional and cultural variations, along with the history and use of mark-making, in addition to the diversity of materials used in the production of books, reflect the progress of humankind. As a bookbinder/book artist I make, work and live with books, my full-time work is my passion. The allure of the traditionally made book is magical, once in the hand, the tactile qualities of the book are transmitted creating a sense of object-form. The function of opening the cover, and turning the page becomes an extension of the process of the book. We are close to the page, we see and feel the type, the illustrations and the paper. 

I feel that I do not have a particular style of working, I work with a rich and diverse array of materials and techniques that I combine, much as a canvas artist mixes their colour range on their palette, to produce the finished book. My work constantly evolves with each book or book project I work on.

What excites you most about being part of the Booker Prize shortlist bookbindings this year? How does the process differ from other bookbinding projects?

Normally it can take months to make one design binding. My approach is to live with the book, to read, research and muse over it. I tend to work things out in my sketchbook and am often to be found scribbling away. From those squiggles a design begins to take shape, sometimes instinctive, sometimes deliberate or a combination of both. It has to be remembered that in addition to the aesthetic of the book, form and function have to be considered in the designing stage. From the pages of the sketchbook I move to the workbench, a maquette or a series of maquettes are made to explore material use, the function of the numerous elements of the construction and application of various decorative techniques to achieve the desired aesthetic. It is only then that I start work on the design binding.

Because the timeline for the Booker Prize is condensed, what would normally take weeks has to take days. I am more instinctive in approach, dipping into my palette of techniques and methods. I still live with the book, reading and re-reading, constantly taking inspiration from the text, interpreting what I feel are key moments or the threads that weave their way through the author’s words.

How did the theme or tone of Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood influence your design choices? What techniques did you apply to your final design?

To be honest, Stone Yard Devotional was something of a struggle for me. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the reading, elements re-kindling distant memories of school, friendships and the oddities of family, how things turn out to be the way they are. I had the design sorted out, an idea of the materials I wanted to use, but I struggled with linking elements together. It was on the second reading that I began to find my way: the answer was threads. There is, for me at least, a series of key events, one taking place in a school sewing class. 

My father was a Master Cutter and Tailor, and I learnt to sew on his lap. I could use the old treadle Singer Sewing Machine tucked away in the corner of his workroom before I could ride a bike. It was in those memories that I was able to link key elements of my design. Basically, I had to learn to sew badly, to render mice, plastic flowers, chicken beaks and the odd crucifix in a child-like, perhaps one could say clumsy machine stitch. Incorrect tension, the sewing machine running away from me, incomplete and layered sewing in a variety of stitch patterns that lend colour along with a tactile quality to the finished book. Other materials and techniques employed are hand-dyed leather, Flottage Papers with my own images of threads and spools printed on them for the endpapers and doublers. Hand-sewn end bands, edge decoration along with recessed panels of book cloth complete the design.

How do you see the craft of bookbinding evolving? Are there any contemporary trends or innovations in the field that inspire or challenge you?

From the materials used to make books along with the various methods of mark making, the book has been in a constant state of evolving. I feel that there is a growing interest in the total book, from the printing to the making with Artists’ Books, private or small presses producing high quality, unique and limited edition books that echo back to the Arts and Crafts movement ethos. By combining traditional and contemporary methods of printing and bookbinding, the work being produced now offers the reader and bibliophile an ever-expanding variety of books and book art. The book is what we make of it, and how we interact with the book depends on how we choose to define what the book is, or could be. 

What do you enjoy most about being a bookbinder, and how would you describe your work and style? Has it evolved over time?

I have always been a maker. When creating design bindings, it is very satisfying to choose the various raw materials – papers, leather, parchment etc – to realise the design and make a new book. I enjoy the exactitude of bookbinding and how each process relates to the next – also the aim for perfection and high quality in a handmade object. Similarly, for the mechanics of the binding – a book should function well and be pleasant to hold and read. It must have ‘warmth’.  

What excites you most about being part of the Booker Prize shortlist bookbindings this year? How does the process differ from other bookbinding projects?

Making a design binding normally has a much longer gestation. Binding for the Booker Prize is usually a challenge for creativity within a limited timescale. However, the selected novels are often unconventional in their writing and format and this lends itself to a more experimental approach to the binding, a chance to explore a new technique or material. For me, there is also some pressure to create a meaningful and appropriate cover design; after all, the book is to be given to the author! 

How did the theme or tone of Held by Anne Michaels influence your design choices? What techniques did you apply to your final design?

Themes of the trauma of war and its long-term generational consequences, early photography, ghostly imagery, abstract painting and small visual metaphors in the narrative inspired the design. The use of translucent parchment on the cover helped to build a three-dimensional, unsettling effect to create the tone I was looking for in my final design. 

How do you see the craft of bookbinding evolving? Are there any contemporary trends or innovations in the field that inspire or challenge you?

I have been binding books for a long while. During this time, high-volume hand-bound work has gradually declined; conventional training opportunities are sparse and/or expensive. An online bookbinding community has evolved, sharing process and technique that has supplanted the lack of formal training with often great, innovative work being produced. If a similar growth in consumers of our work, who appreciate high-quality craft in this computer/smartphone age, can develop then, perhaps, the future is bright.

What do you enjoy most about being a bookbinder, and how would you describe your work and style? Has it evolved over time? 

I think for me the variety is one of the best parts of the job. No day is the same. I have a very short attention span so I really enjoy doing something different on each job. However, I realise this is not the best business model, having to start from scratch every time. But there is such a thrill to starting a new commission, reading the book (though more often than not listening to it nowadays), doing in-depth research into a subject I may have previously known nothing about. And then trying to come up with a response that adds a further layer to the author’s/illustrator’s/typesetter’s/printer’s work without clashing or overriding it. Over the years I’ve spent time with subjects as diverse as the beat poets, psychedelic explorers, mass incarceration, high gothic horror, lynching and now the experience of the enslaved. I try to create an atmosphere rather than illustrate a passage from the book and I would say my style has become more layered, more textural, less obvious – hopefully. 

What excites you most about being part of the Booker Prize shortlist bookbindings this year? How does the process differ from other bookbinding projects?

The Booker Prize commission is a turnaround of approximately six weeks whereas for most of my other commissions, I say that it will be about a year before the client sees it again. Not because each book takes that long! However, because I am running several projects alongside each other in between teaching and other commitments. So the Booker is an intense, roller coaster ride of a job. The deadline is absolute and constantly looming. But I think this full immersion into the world of the book can bring about a better binding, though rather more shredded nerves. I also can’t deny that it is definitely the most glamorous fixture in the annual bookbinding calendar. We bookbinders tend to be a solitary bunch so having to get your gladrags on and hobnob with the great and the good is all a bit too exciting. And also working on something so high profile definitely adds cachet. Not many people have heard of designer bookbinding but nearly everyone has heard of the Booker Prize. 

How did the theme or tone of James by Percival Everett influence your design choices? What techniques did you apply to your final design?

My main takeaway from reading James was one of anger. There is so much visceral imagery, whether descriptions of whipping, rape or the sheer brutality of humanity, and my initial thought was to plaster this all over the cover. But this felt disrespectful so I chose to concentrate on the author’s use of language, picking out all the words which I identified as describing the struggle of the enslaved, but underwriting it with the words ‘hope’ and ‘freedom’, both of which James is constantly aspiring to. I also chose the typeface for the name James within the book and on the outside of the box from an advert for slaves for sale of the time. On the inside of the book it is written in the sloping italic script of the enslaved, on the outside of the box it is an upright script used for the names of freemen. Also, the Mississippi River features heavily throughout so I chose a map of the meanders where the Mississippi meets the Ohio River at Cairo to which James is constantly striving as it is where freedom lies. He hopes. 

How do you see the craft of bookbinding evolving? Are there any contemporary trends or innovations in the field that inspire or challenge you?

Despite there currently being precious little education in bookbinding in the UK, I am very hopeful for the future of bookbinding. The young people I teach at Bath Spa University and West Dean College are all immensely excited by the potential of the book as a vehicle for their arts practice. And there is a huge amount of interest in the handmade book on all the social media platforms. I have exhibited several times at Codex Book Fair in San Francisco, that crucible of human innovation. There is adulation of the book as an art object and publishers from both sides of the Atlantic are investing huge amounts into limited editions of the highest quality – handmade paper, letterpress printing, fine art printmaking and hand binding. I think all of this renewed interest in the book as a physical object, along with all things analogue – vinyl, typewriters, the handmade – is in response to the anonymity and ethereal nature of the digital age and global consumerism. Like William Morris’s Arts and Crafts movement was a protest at the Industrial Revolution and the poor quality of machine-made goods, so we are now in a new protest against the Digital Revolution. As human beings, we want a connection with the person who has made the item we are holding or we want to relearn the hand skills that we are in danger of losing. It feels that fine bookbinding is future-proof. Making with your hands is something that AI cannot achieve. Long may it continue.