It’s been a long and winding road to get to this point, but the books are finally back from the printers and I couldn’t be happier with the way they have turned out. My only disappointment is that my father is not here to see them.

This is a project that my father started before he died. I feel sure he started it for me because I would soon be the custodian of his legacy, so he set about cataloguing his work in a small notebook. He recorded the dates, titles, sizes, media and the location of which portfolio or sketch book in which they could be found. When he died I thought that he had catalogued all his art but I soon learnt that, in fact, there was much more. We soon realised, after setting out to put a book together about Bob’s work, that there was simply too much of it for a single monograph. Not only that, but the range of his work was too wide for one book, so we took the brave decision to turn one volume into two.

So the first book is a compilation of the paintings, drawings and sketches that Bob selected for his catalogue. Most of the artwork in this book has never been seen by anyone other than his family and close friends. This is because he was never interested in showing his work. He did it purely for the joy it gave him.

The second book focuses on his commercial work, which includes record covers, book covers (including his famous Fantasy and Science Fiction work), magazine covers, and advertising illustrations.

Bob also wrote a large collection of poems and wrote/painted a few of his own books that he never published. These are being saved for future release in their own books.

read what John Caulthart, the designer of the books has to say about them here