Description

Revised edition for 2021

by Nicholas Utechin

For this new edition (the third) of From Abbey to Wiles, Nick Utechin has once more updated his study of the artists and their book cover work  for the John Murray and Smith, Elder which did so much to introduce Sherlock Holmes to readers throughout the last century.

More information has come to light about the illustrators Frank Marston and Philip Simmonds and completists will want to know that the Murray omnibus editions are explored more thoroughly than before (have you heard of artists William Belcher and Charles Keeping?)

Paget, Steele and their peers provided the groundwork; but it was the Abbé brothers, Frank Wiles and Val Biro – as well as Simmonds and Marston – who provided the popular images of Holmes that inspired generations.   This profusely-illustrated work reminds us all of an era when books and their dust-jackets provided so much wondrous pleasure.

Previous reviews:

‘A splendid examination’ – Peter E. Blau

‘A valuable piece of detection and research’ – Guy Marriott

‘This witty, entertaining and beautifully-illustrated monograph’ – Roger Johnson