In The Garden of Unearthly Delights - Nigel Suckling œ9.95
           (Book on the paintings of Josh Kirby)

I'm a great fan of Terry Pratchett's books - the Discworld novels
such as Colour of Magic, Wyrd Sisters and Witches Abroad, the
Truckers series (okay, they may be primarily children's books but
I think they're terrific) Truckers, Diggers and Wings, and odd
titles such as Strata and Dark Side of the Sun. But as I've
collected each new title, I've also been increasingly struck by
the covers as well as the story each contains. The cover of a book
is often the first thing that strikes you and though you may buy a
book because it's by an author you like, you may also buy one
because you like the look of the artwork on it - I know I've often
been influenced in that way.

Josh Kirby is the artist who has created the marvellous Pratchett
covers, as well as many more by other famous authors, including
several for Craig Shaw Gardner (including The Cineverse series, A
Difficulty with Dwarves and A Multitude of Monsters), Esther
Friesner and Ray Bradbury, who purchased the original covers for
The Illustrated Man and Something Wicked This Way Comes for his
private art collection.

Having got as hooked on Kirby's artwork as I was on the Pratchett
books, I was really pleased to see In The Garden of Unearthly
Delights for sale in a local shop and even more pleased when Alan
bought it for me as one of my Christmas presents. It wasn't until
I sat down to read it properly that I realised exactly how much
artwork he had actually done over the years.

The book is A4 size and the amount of text in it is restricted to
a page introducing each new chapter and short informative
paragraphs to accompany every picture. There's a foreword by Brian
Aldiss too and he turns out to be an admirer of Kirby's work from
way back. That was another surprise in store; I'd assumed (for no
good reason) that Kirby was in his 20s or 30s.  It turns out that
he was a student at Liverpool City Art School before John Lennon
went there and that his first big commission was to paint a
portrait of the Lord Mayor of Liverpool in 1950!

Now he lives in a 400 year old rectory in Diss, Norfolk, working
most of the time in the old butler's pantry, a small cubbyhole
downstairs, despite having a modern glass-panelled studio. He
would prefer to work on a board wedged between paper-crammed
shelves below a small window. Since he paints 7 days a week, it's
not surprising he's produced so many pictures over the years.

As well as novel covers, he's also been involved in designing and
producing artwork for a number of film posters. These include
Return of the Jedi, Krull, Morons from Outer Space and Monty
Python's Life of Brian. He was also commissioned, along with many
other artists, to create a set of Tarot cards for Bruce Pelz,
where each did one card, Kirby's being the Two of Cups.

After the foreword and introduction, the book is divided into
eight chapters, 144 pages in all. Chapter One is Vapours of
Forgotten Worlds, covering general fantasy themes. In one case it
shows two different versions of the same picture which was
originally done as a private work, taken from an unused idea from
one of the Discworld novels. Later Kirby simplified it and turned
it into a book cover for a role playing game book. Chapter Two
covers magic, and Chapter Three Kirby's Voyage of the AyeGuy
series.  Other chapters cover maidens and monsters, sword and
sorcery, the Terry Pratchett novels (couldn't be omitted, could
they?), aliens and androids and horror.  I hadn't realised that he
had created the covers for a series of Hitchcock short stories
back in the early 70s where Hitchcock's face was illustrated with
skulls and similar images.

Most of Kirby's pictures are so detailed that each time you look
at them you notice something that you'd previously missed and
though there's a definite Kirby style as epitomised by his
Discworld covers, he can obviously turn his hand to many different
types of artwork. It's also interesting to find out how he designs
the covers and where he gets his inspiration from. An excellent
book that I will no doubt pick up again and again.
                                                       Sue