The Good
Original (trade paperback) cover of Shirley, Goodness & Mercy by Chris van Wyk (Picador, 2004)
What could be more redolent and evocative of decades past than the old-fashioned glass milk bottle, with foil top being pecked open by a bird? Judging this memoir of Chris van Wyk’s by its cover is good practice, for once: just as the jacket image whisks one to another time and spirit of place, so too does the author’s filigree writing.
Joost: The Man in the Mirror
Rabble-Rouser for Peace: The Authorised Biography of Desmond Tutu by John Allen (Rider, 2007)
A biography with something other than the smiling or contemplative face of its subject on the cover is almost as rare as hen’s teeth. A man of actions and words, Archbishop Desmond Tutu is caught here in demonstrative mode, a fighter for justice in full flow.
The Bad
Second is Nothing by Alan Knott-Craig (Macmillan, 2009)
The rictus factor is modest, although former Vodacom honcho Alan Knott-Craig has much to smile about. This master of the cellphone industry volte-face — rather than the mere turnaround — looks conflicted here, resembling Robert Duvall playing Rudi Giuliani playing Alan Knott-Craig, or perhaps Alan Knott-Craig playing Robert Duvall playing Rudi Giuliani.
In Pursuit of a Dream: Bill Venter and the Altron Story
Joost: The Man in the Mirror by David Gemmell (Random House Struik, 2009)
Why the baseball cap on a rugby icon? Maybe it’s because Joost can leave his hat on, regardless of circumstances or shenanigans. But representing a man who loves to get a large part of the action — on and off the field — by a static mug-shot with the dead eyes of a bad alabaster bust just doesn’t cut it.
The Ugly
In Pursuit of a Dream: Bill Venter and the Altron Story (Shinglewood Press, 2009)
A man and his dog are never parted, it seems. Hubris abounds in this image striving to conjure up and roll into one the Old Masters, pseudo-Tuscan light, the African bush and a Goyaesque family-and-dog milieu. Some might say that the airbrush and the taxidermist were at work too and that the most vibrant element of the photograph is the wooden deck.