Booksquare

Maybe 13 really is unlucky – since that’s the number of cover designs for my new novel that my publisher has already run through, and not one of them works. Few companies would lavish such care on finding just the right image for a single book, and I admire their perfectionism. Yet these hard-working and skillful designers have consistently turned a deaf ear to the author’s entreaties that someone, please, sit down and draft some original art. You would think I was suggesting that they hop aboard the next Nasa shuttle and go collect moon rocks. I fear that, like so many recent art school graduates, most of these technologically nimble professionals do not know how to draw.

• Now that pixels have replaced pencils the art of drawing has vanished. I’m so exasperated I’m designing my own book cover