On the 15th April 2019 the book cover for The Garden of Lost Secrets was revealed by teacher Ashley Booth on Twitter. The response was brilliant and I'm SO happy, as it really is the cover of my dreams, designed by Katharine Millichope at Usborne and illustrated by Amy Grimes.
Over the past months, I've been amazed at the amount of care and attention that's gone into the cover design. I can still remember the first meeting with my editor, way back in summer 2018, when she mentioned the idea of Clara, the protagonist, being set within a key hole (picking up on one of the major plot points in the book!). I absolutely loved this idea and the design team went away to work it up.
I've seen various mock ups as the cover progressed and it's felt like a really collaborative process, with my views being sought at every stage. An early version of the cover had ivy twisting around the edges, and while this looked lovely, we talked about the possibility of softening this and using mandarins and blossom, picking up on another theme in the book, and I think this has worked so well.
So, the editing is finished, the cover is looking lovely and the book has gone to print. It won't be long now until I'll be able to hold the final version in my hands - and see it in the shops - and I can't imagine what that will feel like. Perhaps I'll cry, jump up and down, squeak, shout and make a general idiot of myself? But whatever happens, as I hold it I think I'll mostly be feeling thankful that Usborne selected this little book, which I wrote at my kitchen table over a long cold winter, and decided that it was worthy of being read by others. And when it is read that will result in a whole other set of feelings, perhaps best saved for another day!