Tome Me Up

2026 turned into the year where I worked on numerous books. I love doing books.

Circles by Mark Maskell [editor Vin Maskell]

Circles is a collection of the writings of Mark Maskell (1953-1974). I'll quote the foreword;

Two years after Mark Maskell died in 1974, just shy of his 21st birthday, the Maskell family published a private collection of some of Mark’s poems. The forty-page book, called Circles, revealed a man yearning for a better world for all. Fifty years on, this new 172 page edition includes those ever-evocative poems plus long lost stories, letters, photos, and poetry.

Mark's brother Vin edited the collection, and asked me to design the book, which was an honour. Our connection goes back to about 2013 when Vin bought and then wrote an essay about my Geoff Blethyn t-shirt.

We paired original manuscripts of his writing to the typeset copy. It’s visually more lively for the average reader. And for those who knew Mark it will hopefully remind them of the real person behind the words. The person who held the pen or bashed the old typewriter.

Abandoned Cricket Pitches by Les Everett

The other book could not be more different. This one is by Les Everett, and our connection goes back a similar distance to when I started following his sports-centric online activity, which documents scoreboards, cricket pitches and goalposts. It’s a coincidence these two books came along at once, as Les's colleague on the wonderful Scoreboard Pressure website is in fact Vin.

Les has been hunting and photographing abandoned and disused cricket pitches all over Western Australia since 2019. He has about 650 photos and we ended up at 256 pages. It’s a remarkable effort, and was a dream to work on.

Stereo Stories Pocket Books edited by Vin Maskell

As well as Scoreboard Pressure, Vin runs a much larger and more complicated venture called Stereo Stories. It's filled with stories about music and memory; from about 280 different contributors. Last year we met up in Melbourne to talk about putting out some little books for the more prolific authors among them. We went to print with the first two in January this year; and we have two more in the pipeline. Again I am genuinely tickled pink to be involved; as I love the site and have written a few stories myself. 

The Projecting Brain by James Vickers

This author is another old friend, and another completely different subject. I have known James  (Distinguished Professor Emeritus James Vickers) since around 1992, when we actually met playing Dungeons and Dragons. He has recently retired from his long and awarded career as a brain researcher. I was very fortunate over the years to be commissioned to help with some of his projects that called for animation, to explain aspects of brain function and disfunction. 

James asked me to illustrate the cover of his new book, which was launched at Fullers Bookshop. Here he is in conversation with Dr Matt Kircaldie (who I have know since high school!) You can buy the book through James's website here. I have shown above how I thought the illustration should sit on the cover; which is not quite how it has finished up in printing. The customer is always right – but on my website I wear the big pants! Subject to legal advice.