A tradition that dates back to 30 years, Designer Book Binders UK is a known name for those ardently following the Booker Prize for Fiction. In an honour bestowed upon the author, the story of a Booker-nominated book is redesigned and bound, a copy of which is sent to the respective author. This is no mean feat as a design fellow at DBB UK has to read the book, understand what it stands for, create a design that would fit the narrative and then painstakingly create the cover by hand. It is famously said that each cover takes up to 150-plus hours of work and six designers, every year, come together to create the final product, which is magnificent to look at while also being a beautiful interpretation of the book. This year too, it was no different. Because of the pandemic, one could keep a tab on the progress of the covers coming together on the social media pages of the Booker Prize and the covers have all finally been revealed and sent to the respective authors, much to their exaltations.

This year, there were seven designers with two of them working for the same book — Dominic Riley, Derek Hood, Kate Holland, Lori Sauer, Rachel Ward-Sale, Sue Doggett and Stuart Brockman. While those who tuned in to watch the awards ceremony in November may have caught a short glimpse of the books displayed on plinths, now that the books are reaching the individual authors who were nominated, we are finally getting to see the final covers. Here is a glimpse of the six books this year and some favourites from the past.

1. Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

Bound by: Kate Holland and Derek Hood

Inspiration: Readers first meet protagonists Shuggie and his mother Agnes in Glasgow, in a housing estate in Sighthill and it is that which is the inspiration behind this cover. The splash of red in the back cover denotes the tail lights of Shuggie’s taxi.

Materials: Made completely with goatskin in biscuit colour, there are inlays in the cover made of rawhide material that is shagreen. The dots on the front and back cover are tooled by hand with gilt edges and gilded on endpaper.

2. The New Wilderness by Diane Cook

Bound by: Stuart Brockman

Inspiration: The skyline of the City and the trees of The Wilderness are clearly demarcated with a barbed wire separating the two. Such is the keen eye for details that the end bands of the book are in pink to reflect the pink of Agnes’s bedroom in the City.

Materials: Marbled endleaves, and covered in cushioned, chestnut goatskin with gold tooling and lettering, this cover comes with stainless steel fittings of barbed wire running through its centre. Edge gilding, referring to the gold edges of the pages that always add a great look to any book, has been used here as well.

3. The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste

Bound by: Lori Sauer

Inspiration: A focal point in Ethiopian history is brought alive in this book that takes inspiration from the extremes of brutality and cruelty at the time that was met with equal amounts of courage. Sauer speaks of trying to play with light and darkness when it came to this cover, while the design motifs depict flying or falling.

Materials: The spine is covered with pale eel skin that holds together slate veneer with unique markings that make the front and back cover. Suede fly leaves add to the texture of the cover and the crossed structure binding (sewed directly into the back cover to connect with the front cover) adds to the stability of the final book.

4. This Mournable Body by Tsitsi Dangarembga

Bound by: Rachel Ward-Sale

Inspiration: The detailing of this cover has us in awe, with each design depicting a moment from the book that affected the protagonist, Tambudzai. While the leather circles reflect her state of mind with red for trauma, black for depression, blue for tears, purple and gold for a job and grey for the final calm.

Materials: Dyed natural leather is used to bind this book with green stencilled leaves found in the flyleaves, a nod to the jacaranda trees in the book. The natural leather was stippled or marked with numerous small dots or specks in light green for the spine.

5. Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi

Bound by: Sue Doggett

Inspiration: The relationship of a mother and daughter and the nuances of one grappling with the other’s dementia was delved deep into by Doggett who created a beautiful threadwork cover that also takes into account the sweets mentioned in the book and the colours of the sweets! The way the protagonist Antara uses embroidery is also used in this cover.

Materials: The threadwork, both intricate and detailed as well as colourful and textured, is what gives this cover its gorgeous look.

Work in progress. Sourced by The Telegraph

6. Real Life by Brandon Taylor

Bound by: Dominic Riley

Inspiration: The story is of a young gay Black man in university who struggles with his profession as a research scholar while also exploring the act of falling in love while being surrounded by white privileged gay men who came with their own prejudices. Being a gay man himself, Riley appreciated the book immensely and decided to interpret life and the possibility of everything changing in a single sweep through the metaphor of the popular game Snakes and Ladders.

Materials: Black checkered leather with gilded and textured ladders and multi-coloured snakes, there is simplicity and depth simultaneously existing in this cover.