Surprise! book cover revealed and explained!

If I may draw your attention over to the side?

As part of Miscellaneous Press’ launch today, I am very proud to unveil Surprise!‘s front cover.

I don’t think Kim will disagree with me here when I say that the cover, and the two pages which follow, were the ones which caused us the most head-scratching and to-and-fro-ing over emails and phone-calls.

We had several other cover ideas but they did not eventuate for certain reasons. This final one was actually originally to be the title page, but from the moment I saw this sketch, both here and in the flesh when Kim came to show me the drafts, I just loved its simplicity and warmth.

Kim and I agreed from the start that the cover would either have all of the main characters present, or none. Because in Surprise! each character is as important as the other, so to highlight or prioritise one over the other just did not seem fair. In this respect, I am happy each gets their time in the ‘spotlight’, and so may I take this opportunity to introduce, going from left to right:

Hamish, Alice, Meg and Thomas.

Once you’ve read the book, I think you will love each as much as I do.