By Neil Gaiman

The Folio Society, available now

 Londoner Charles ‘Fat Charlie’ Nancy leads an unassuming life, making plans for his wedding, but then he hears about the death of his absent father and things shift from the mundane to fantastical.

The Folio Society once again spoil it for everyone else by creating the definitive edition of a work, with all other copies now feeling redundant. My battered paperback of Neil Gaiman’s 2005 New York Times #1 bestseller is now resigned to being a ‘reading copy’, with this gloriously colourful copy now taking pride of place on the bookshelf. It boasts a psychedelic wraparound design on its slipcase, depicting a tongue bridge unfurling from Mr Nancy’s mouth. The artwork is by Francis Vallejo, and he perfectly captures the author’s mix of Caribbean legend and phantasmagoria.

I particularly like the fluorescent green spider webs that climb across the black page edging and the lime fabric bookmark – you will not be wanting to fold the pages on this one. In addition to the slipcase and outer cover, Vallejo has created six plates of colour illustrations (including frontispiece) and a lovely black and white illustration that begins each of the 14 chapters. It’s the same base drawing each time – the boughs of a tree – but each is slightly different, with the addition of a spider web, a tiger, a bird, and so on.

Verdict: The prose itself was already a winner (Gaiman picked up the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel) and now it has a sharp new exterior that Mr Nancy would approve of. While editions like this keep coming our way there will always a good excuse to buy another copy of a Neil Gaiman classic. 10/10

Nick Joy

 

Illustration ©2019 Francis Vallejo from The Folio Society edition of Neil Gaiman’s Anansi Boys

The Folio Society edition of Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman, introduced by Nalo Hopkinson and illustrated by Francis Vallejo, is available exclusively from www.FolioSociety.com