ODDS AND ENDS
All your days
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`The diary that Granta Books has produced for 2005 creates an effect that is as moving as it is magical.'
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SOME people are passionate about books. Others feel the same passion for specially designed diaries and calendars. What happens when both come together? In a word, it's magic! When I actually received an example of such an effort I was so overwhelmed by it, I simply forgot to react!
Moving and magical
The diary that Granta Books has produced for 2005 creates an effect that is as moving as it is magical. It features covers of 53 well-known books, from 1889 to 2003, the oldest being the cover of The Granta No. 1, Vol. 1, dated January 18, 1889 (price: one shilling). The diary opens with the cover of the 1951 edition of that world famous classic, Catcher in the Rye. Flip through the rest of the diary, and you will be offered a visual feast, whether you are a book lover, or a graphic artist and designer. It also serves as a significant guide in documenting publishing history, and tracing trends and styles in cover design and illustration, as it developed over the years. The familiar sight of an old Penguin book — with its orange-and-tinted-white cover — is as likely to bring a pang of nostalgia as covers of novels by Agatha Christie, or books like Clockwork Orange and Valley of the Dolls. The deliberate use of much-thumbed and slightly shop soiled covers adds a distinct style to this collection. The only surprising and disappointing factor is the absence of a book by P.G. Wodehouse ("It is conspic by it's a", one might add), particularly covers illustrated by Ionicus for Penguin UK.
Subtle innovation
Having looked at the covers, it would be natural for anyone to look for one's favourite characters and "icons" that one grew up with. I looked for my eternal friends, Holmes and Alice. They were not immediately visible. A wave of disappointment was about to rise, when I spotted a wonderful innovation. On the right hand side of each week-to-view page, is neatly inscribed the first line of a famous novel and notes on authors, often matching the cover on the left hand side. Holmes appears on May 4: "On the 4th of May Sherlock Holmes meets Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls". It is the well-known opening line of The Final Problem. Similarly, you meet Alice on November 4 with the entry, "On the 4th of November Alice goes through the Looking-glass". If Harry Potter fans miss out on him visually, they can meet him on the last day of July: "31st July is Harry Potter's birthday" (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone). Slid between the pages, you encounter Charles Dickens, Robert Louis Stevenson, James Joyce, Wuthering Heights, War and Peace, Lolita, 1984 and many others.
Careful balance
Needless to add, countless elements of surprise leap out from a number of pages. In the 1939 edition of Old Possum Book of Practical Cats (Faber & Faber), the cover depicts a delightful illustration of cats done by the creator of the book himself, T.S. Eliot. It is clear from the picture how well he knew the anatomy of cats and kittens! Then there are the drawings of the Finnish artist/ writer, Tove Jansson. Her illustrations, made for Alice in Wonderland are well known, but perhaps not many would know about her series of books on "The Moomin Trolls" character. Here you discover these books, thanks to one of its covers (The Book About Moomin, Mymble and Little My).
The balance between writers, books, genres and periods is very carefully worked out, and it all fits in within 53 book jackets — an almost impossible challenge, one would have thought. Classics, thrillers, plays and poetry rub shoulders with juvenile literature, Indo-Anglian literature, and even a cookbook (Delia Smith's Complete Cookery Course) in this collection. There is the cover of Midnight's Children, and one may well wonder if Rushdie is here, can our Roy be far behind? Sure enough, you may spot her in May with the first line of God of Small Things. On December 31, the diary closes most aptly with the last line from Gone with the Wind: "After all, tomorrow is another day."
On the stands
Before I reveal all, perhaps I should stop simply by adding one last line that will comfort all readers. This diary is soon going to be available in India. I was given a copy, but the purpose of this review was not to show off in triumph. It was simply to inform you of the joys that are in store.
For the whole of 2005, through each of its 53 weeks and 365 days, I shall salute Granta Books, Ian Jack and his able team of researchers for this charming bibliographic endeavour.
INDRANI MAJUMDAR
Granta Diary 2005, colour diary, week-to-view, £9.99. www.granta.com
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