posted on 13 Nov 2022

Agatha Christie Cover Story by Tom Adams with commentary by Julian Symons

If you are a fan of the detective stories of Agatha Christie and you’ve owned a paperback of her work published before or just after 1980 by Fontana, you’ll be familiar with the art of Tom Adams – probably without realising it. Adams (March 29, 1926 – December 9, 2019) was a jobbing artist who also did jacket art for the likes of John Fowles, Patrick White and David Storey, LP cover art for Lou Reed and Iron Maiden and also worked in the movies, mostly on science fiction projects.

I think that Adams’ work is rather like Marmite – you either love it or hate it – but this large format book from 1981 published by Paper Tiger gives you plenty of chance to make up your mind which way you fall on the question. The book gives us 90 of Adams’ covers reproduced in colour with a page of commentary split between the artist himself and a critical appreciation by mystery novelist, Julian Symons. To his credit, Symons doesn’t hold back when he’s unsure or unhappy with one of Adams’ interpretations and this gives his contributions an edge of authentic criticality.

Adams provided cover art for Christie paperbacks for the best part of 30 years and his approach remained broadly the same but became more subtle and experimental as he developed his thinking. What stays the same is his very painterly approach to the task of capturing the essence of a books’ key themes. The illustrations are immediately recognisable and take the form of a set-piece tableau, often consisting of a collage of strange or clashing images that end up forming a disturbing still life. In Steve Holland’s obituary for Adams published in 2020 by The Guardian, he notes the way these surreal images were one of the artist’s calling-cards:

“Surreal juxtaposition was a favoured technique, Adams claiming that classical surrealism lent itself to the symbolist illustration of thrillers and crime stories. Certainly he drew on René Magritte – replacing a vicar’s head with a tennis racket for The Murder at the Vicarage – and Salvador Dalí – visible in Destination Unknown’s swirling sky and smoke writhing over a desert dotted with colossal pearls.”

Although Adams specialises in paintings that have an almost photorealism about them, he’s never interested in presenting ‘real life’ scenes. There are no attempts to depict a specific scene from the book or to show dramatic acts of murder or violence. There’s often an oblique symbolism about the images he chooses and many of them recur: he is, for example, very fond of a giant insect menacing the otherwise ‘normal’ world.

For me, Adams’ cover art either works wonderfully well or leaves me cold. For example, I love the illustration for ‘One Two Buckle My Shoe’ which shows us the barrel of a gun pointing directly at us as it pushes through the printed page of a children’s book depicting the rhyme that the title of the book comes from. It’s simple, direct and effective and gives us a perspective as a reader that makes us immediately part of the action.

By contrast, I’m not at all keen on the drawing for ‘Elephants Can Remember’ which brings together a melange of images that are in some way central to the plot – a dog, a gun, a wig(?), a spectral elephant. The overall effect is cluttered and lacks intrigue or harmony.

But, of course, these are purely personal impressions and reflect my taste – your response might be wholly different. In the end, there’s only one way to find out whether Adams is your kind of artist or not; what you like and what you don’t like and that is to buy the book and take a look for yourself.

The book is out of print but there are copies to be found on the second hand market and you’d expect to pay no more than £15 for a copy.

 

Terry Potter

November 2022