As 3 million readers can attest, Nick Bantock's Griffin and Sabine trilogy is the world's most original epistolary novel. It contains (physically contains) the correspondence of Londoner Griffin Moss and Sabine Strohem of the Sicmon Islands in the South Pacific--colorful postcards and letters in envelopes pasted into the book, which the reader must open and read. In his gloriously illustrated autobiography The Artful Dodger, Bantock explains the allure of opening letters: it's "a sort of cross between Christmas and sex." And when the letters illuminate somebody else's mysterious love affair, it's all the more delicious.

Griffin and Sabine really are mysterious, and it's tricky to piece together their story from the fanciful, surrealistic bits the text, maps, stamps, and pictures provide. That's why fans will be ravenous to read Bantock's charmingly straightforward memoir, which lets us in on all kinds of secrets about his symbols and visual sources. Winged figures always signify transition, he says, "whether on a monkey, an angel, or a devil." Sabine's Sicmon Islands home derives from the English expression "sick as a parrot," which connects with the parrot on the first book's cover and expresses Griffin's ailing English soul--what he needs is a sensual, elusive Sabine to get his blood up. Both characters are warring parts of Bantock's own psyche.

You don't need to know a thing about them to revel in this book. It's spellbinding in its own right, partly for the artless narrative, but mostly for the hundreds of pictures and the fascinating intricacy of Bantock's creative process. Sabine done in ghostly charcoal and gold dust is exquisite, no matter who she might be. It's a bit spooky to learn that a 1970s French stamp Bantock bought from his local shop to go with one of Sabine's postcards turns out to have been classified as "Type Sabine" by the French Philatelic Society. It was taken from a David painting of the Sabine women, and was meant to symbolize "union"--the central theme of Bantock's trilogy.

There is plenty besides his greatest hit to delight the eye here. The book cover illustrations are arresting, particularly for Peter Ackroyd's bio Chatterton (though his depiction of T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land is drably silly). His pop-up books of Jabberwocky and The Egyptian Jukebox (a series of drawers full of museum-like objects that tell the tale of a mad millionaire's travels) are brilliant. Bantock's gift for collage does honor to his idol, Joseph Cornell, without being derivative. His wildly improbable life story proves that fate shares his enthusiasm for flights of fancy. --Tim Appelo


From Publishers Weekly
Reading Bantock's latest lavishly illustrated novel, the first in his new Morning Star trilogy and the continuation of the saga of Griffin and Sabine, is like going on a delightful treasure hunt. Here an exotic photograph tucked in an exquisitely designed envelope, there a charming ticket receipt for a mysterious packet of letters. The author's skill at revealing plot through allowing readers the voyeuristic thrill of literally opening and reading other people's mail, and his considerable artistic talents are the source of the book's originality. Fans of Bantock's popular Griffin & Sabine trilogy will be delighted by that duo's reappearance here. Matthew Sedon, an Egypt-based archeologist, receives a note one day from Sabine, a woman he doesn't remember ever meeting, instructing him to pick up a packet of letters in storage in Alexandria. These letters are the love correspondence of Griffin and Sabine. When Matthew shares them with his grad student girlfriend in Paris, Isabella de Reims, she discovers that they refer to the bizarre visions she sees in waking dreams. Newcomers may feel left out by references to material from the previous books, and the epistolary form has its drawbacks, glossing over key information and hinting at tantalizing things to come. Though there's not much the author can do with 56 pages, nearly half of them pure illustration, the growing passion between Matthew and Isabella portends future intrigue in this new trilogy. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Bantock, the creator of Griffin & Sabine (1991) and nine other unusual works of illustrated fiction, fashions an elaborately pictorial fairy tale out of the story of his charmed artist's life. In a narrative that exudes an unmistakable aura of noblesse oblige, the most intriguing chapters recount Bantock's amazing good luck as a young English dropout in the late 1960s. In spite of evincing no talent whatsoever, he enrolled in art school and soon magically discovered his gift for drawing. After completing his studies, he acted once again on intuition and impulse and waltzed into the offices of Penguin (having chosen that particular publisher because its "logo seemed friendly") and walked out with his first assignment, thus launching what became a 28-year career in book cover illustration. Bantock presents an impressive array of his diverse and striking work, including his covers for Flann O'Brien's Third Policeman and Carson McCullers' The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, then takes up the thread of his tale, recounting in word and image his move to Canada and his quest for more personal, challenging, and unpredictable outlets for his unique vision and technical mastery. Bantock proudly illuminates his creative process and also acknowledges his diverse influences, which range from Rembrandt to Odilon Redon, Joseph Cornell, old maps, stamps, and Hindu art, and he takes his fans through each stage of the conception and birth of his books. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description
With sales of his Griffin & Sabine Trilogy surpassing three million copies, it's been said that Nick Bantock has created an original literary genre. Now he brings new meaning to the art of autobiography with The Artful Dodger: Images and Reflections, in which he infuses the tale of his professional and artistic life with warmth and wit. The Artful Dodger surveys the vast and varied territory that Bantock's work encompasses: from his English art-school days to paperback covers, pure abstract experimentation to pop-up books, Griffin & Sabine to his most recent work. Bantock's own words lend a highly personal, often revealing, always entertaining angle to more than 350 resplendent images. As rich in life as it is in art, The Artful Dodger reveals the creative range of a modern graphic master.


About the Author
Nick Bantock is the author of the best-selling Griffin & Sabine Trilogy, which has been translated into 12 languages. He is also the author of The Venetian's Wife, published by Chronicle Books. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

With sales of his Griffin & Sabine Trilogy surpassing three million copies, it's been said that Nick Bantock has created an original literary genre. Now he brings new meaning to the art of autobiography with The Artful Dodger: Images and Reflections, in which he infuses the tale of his professional and artistic life with warmth and wit. The Artful Dodger surveys the vast and varied territory that Bantock's work encompasses: from his English art-school days to paperback covers, pure abstract experimentation to pop-up books, Griffin & Sabine to his most recent work. Bantock's own words lend a highly personal, often revealing, always entertaining angle to more than 350 resplendent images. As rich in life as it is in art, The Artful Dodger reveals the creative range of a modern graphic master.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

It's been almost 10 years since the first, wildly successful Griffin & Sabine books hit the shelves; British author Bantock has since turned his distinctive idiom into a virtual industry. Eight more books weaving together romance (epistolary and otherwise), canny graphics and artsy inserts have been joined by seven pop-up books, along with miscellaneous "postcard books," journals, sets of notecards and a CD-ROM. This retrospective collection covers most of that material and more, with Bantock talking us through his career throughout. While this seems like a recipe for a narcissistic vanity project, Bantock's earnest "passion for parallax views" and gentle, self-deflating humor carry the book along nicely, if not compellingly for nonfans. Beginning with his late '60s art college days, we see Bantock work his way through the '70s and Thatcherite England as an ad graphics man and book jacket illustrator (including some uncharacteristic horror covers) while simultaneously producing competent but unremarkable paintings. By 1988, having had his fill of the "general air of hopelessness and despondency" in London, Bantock packed up his family and moved to Vancouver (where they remain), which made working with U.S. publishers more convenient, and led to a pop-up book, and then, out of musings on dreary mail, to the surprise-stocked pages of Griffin & Sabine and its follow-ups. Bestseller lists, book tours and fame followed, which Bantock is winningly modest in describing and which have abated somewhat. His explanations of books like The Golden Mean will intrigue fans, and the more than 350 color illustrations may make him more. But despite Bantock's goodwill, this one's mainly for completists. (Sept.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

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