William Botten (born 19 May 1935) is a British illustrator, designer and artist known for the design of over 250 book covers.

Early life

Botten was born in London, England, and was evacuated to the Buckinghamshire countryside for the duration of the Second World War. He left school aged 16 for his first job as a studio boy at advertising agency George Street & Company in the City of London. He returned to Streets after National Service in the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

in Iraq.

Career

After working as a designer at magazine publishers

Fleetway Publications Fleetway Publications was a magazine publishing company based in London. History It was founded in 1959 when the Mirror Group acquired the Amalgamated Press, then based at Fleetway House, Farringdon Street, London. It was one of the companies ...

, London, he became Art Director at

Sphere Books Sphere Books is the name of two British paperback publishers. History The original Sphere Books was launched in 1966 by Thomson Corporation. Sphere was sold to Pearson PLC in 1985 and became part of Penguin. Macdonald & Co. (Publishers) bough ...

, a new paperback book publishers set up by

Thomson Corporation Thomson Corporation was one of the world's largest information companies. It was established in 1989 following a merger between International Thomson Organization and Thomson Newspapers. In 2008, it purchased Reuters Group to form Thomson Reut ...

in 1965. After a brief partnership with fellow designer Wilson Buchanan, he freelanced full time producing magazine adverts, exhibition stand designs and in the 1980s illustrations for the

Avon Products Avon Products, Inc. ( ) is an Anglo-American multinational company selling cosmetics, skin care, perfume, and personal care products. It is a multi-level marketing company based in London. In 2020, Avon had annual sales of $9.1 billion worldwid ...

cosmetics company. His most distinctive artistic legacy lies in the book jackets he designed for UK publishers, David Bruce and Watson, Hutchinson and

Jonathan Cape Jonathan Cape is a British publishing firm headquartered in London and founded in 1921 by Herbert Jonathan Cape, who was head of the firm until his death. Cape and his business partner Wren Howard (1893–1968) set up the publishing house in ...

. Many of these books are collectable and some command high prices.

Jonathan Cape

Botten produced 120 hardback book covers from the mid 60s to the mid-1980s commissioned by Tony Coldwell at

. Cape had a reputation for publishing first editions of important authors. Botten designed and illustrated the cover for

Salman Rushdie Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie ( ; born 19 June 1947) is an Indian-born British and American novelist. His work often combines magic realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern wor ...

’s breakthrough novel '' Midnight’s Children''. He took the photograph for

Kingsley Amis Sir Kingsley William Amis (16 April 1922 – 22 October 1995) was an English novelist, poet, critic and teacher. He wrote more than 20 novels, six volumes of poetry, a memoir, short stories, radio and television scripts, and works of social crit ...

’s novel '' Girl, 20'' in his suburban home’s garage which he transformed into a photographic studio with a neighbour as model. The writer

Ian McEwan Ian Russell McEwan (born 21 June 1948) is a British novelist and screenwriter. In 2008, ''The Times'' featured him on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945" and ''The Daily Telegraph'' ranked him number 19 in its list of the ...

’s first collection of short stories '' First Love, Last Rites'' is described as having ''“Beardsleyesque elegance”''. Cape commissioned six covers for titles by science fiction author J G Ballard between 1973 and 1982. The covers of first editions of Ballard’s '' Crash'' and '' Hello America'' show Botten’s skill in airbrush technique. They also show his attention to how the book’s spine appears on the shelf with his jacket art often extending on to the back cover. The author

Brian Aldiss Brian Wilson Aldiss (; 18 August 1925 – 19 August 2017) was an English writer, artist and anthology editor, best known for science fiction novels and short stories. His byline reads either Brian W. Aldiss or simply Brian Aldiss, except for oc ...

liked Botten’s cover for the first edition of ''New Arrivals, Old Encounters''. He always read the book before designing the cover.

James Bond

Jonathan Cape published

Ian Fleming Ian Lancaster Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 August 1964) was a British writer, best known for his postwar ''James Bond'' series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., and his ...

’s James Bond novels and subsequently Bond books written by other authors. Bill was asked to follow the style of Richard Chopping, designer of the original Fleming novels such as ''From Russia with Love'' (1957) and ''The Man with the Golden Gun'' (1965). Botten produced artwork for two novels by John Gardner: ''

For Special Services ''For Special Services'', first published in 1982, was the second novel by John Gardner featuring Ian Fleming's secret agent, James Bond. Carrying the Glidrose Publications copyright, it was first published in the United Kingdom by Jonathan Cap ...

'' (1982) and ''

Icebreaker An icebreaker is a special-purpose ship or boat designed to move and navigate through ice-covered waters, and provide safe waterways for other boats and ships. Although the term usually refers to ice-breaking ships, it may also refer to smaller ...

'' (1983) in Chopping’s style. When Christopher Wood’s novelisation of the screenplay for ''James Bond,'' ''The Spy Who Love Me'' (1977) was published by Jonathan Cape, Botten broke free of that earlier genre and produced a large oil painting which referenced the Pre-Raphaelite style. The subsequent novel of the film ''James Bond and'' ''Moonraker'' (1979) was in a different style again, using artists

gouache Gouache (; ), body color, or opaque watercolor is a water-medium paint consisting of natural pigment, water, a binding agent (usually gum arabic or dextrin), and sometimes additional inert material. Gouache is designed to be opaque. Gouach ...

Bill Botten - Artist

The commercial work earned him a living. His own work covers figures, abstracts and often surreal humour.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Botten, Bill 1935 births Living people British artists