Christopher Norton Moore (1 June 1947 – 7 February 2025) was a British illustrator, particularly noted for his book covers, especially in the field of

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

. Moore created cover images for works by many of the most famous authors in science fiction, including since 1998 some of the book covers for Orion Publishing's

SF Masterworks ''SF Masterworks'' is a series of science fiction novel reprints published by UK-based company Orion Publishing Group, a subsidiary of Hachette UK. The series is intended for the United Kingdom and Australian markets, but many editions are distr ...

series.

Career

Moore attended

graphic design Graphic design is a profession, academic discipline and applied art that involves creating visual communications intended to transmit specific messages to social groups, with specific objectives. Graphic design is an interdisciplinary branch of ...

classes at

Maidstone College of Art The Kent Institute of Art & Design (KIAD, often ) was an art school based across three campuses in the county of Kent, in the United Kingdom. It was formed by the amalgamation of three independent colleges: Canterbury College of Art, Maidstone Co ...

and was accepted by the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public university, public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City, London, White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design uni ...

with a focus on illustration from 1969 to 1972. In the 1970s he also created a number of album covers, for recording artists including

Rod Stewart Sir Roderick David Stewart (born 10 January 1945) is a British singer and songwriter. Known for his distinctive raspy singing voice, Stewart is among the List of best-selling music artists, best-selling music artists of all time, having sold ...

(''The Vintage Years''), the group Magnum, Journey,

Fleetwood Mac Fleetwood Mac are a British-American Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1967 by the singer and guitarist Peter Green (musician), Peter Green. Green named the band by combining the surnames of the drummer, Mick Fleetwood, and the bassis ...

(''

Penguin Penguins are a group of aquatic flightless birds from the family Spheniscidae () of the order Sphenisciformes (). They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere. Only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is equatorial, with a sm ...

''),

The Allman Brothers Band The Allman Brothers Band was an American rock music, rock band formed in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1969. Its founding members were brothers Duane Allman (slide guitar, lead guitar) and Gregg Allman (vocals, keyboards), as well as Dickey Betts ( ...

Lindisfarne Lindisfarne, also known as Holy Island, is a tidal island off the northeast coast of England, which constitutes the civil parishes in England, civil parish of Holy Island in Northumberland. Holy Island has a recorded history from the 6th centu ...

(''Magic in the Air'' and '' The News''),

Status Quo is a Latin phrase meaning the existing state of affairs, particularly with regard to social, economic, legal, environmental, political, religious, scientific or military issues. In the sociological sense, the ''status quo'' refers to the curren ...

(''

Just Supposin' ''Just Supposin is the thirteenth album by Status Quo. Co-produced by the group and John Eden, it was recorded at Windmill Lane Studios, Dublin. Released on 17 October 1980, it entered the UK albums chart at number 4. The Windmill Lane sessions ...

'', '' 12 Gold Bars'' and '' Never Too Late''), and

Pentangle Pentangle may refer to: *Pentagon, a five-sided polygon *Pentagram, a five-pointed star drawn with five straight strokes *Pentangle (band), a British folk rock band ** ''The Pentangle'' (album), a 1968 album by Pentangle *Miss Pentangle, a character ...

(''Pentangling''). Moore's

interplanetary spaceflight Interplanetary spaceflight or interplanetary travel is spaceflight (Human spaceflight, crewed or Uncrewed spacecraft, uncrewed) between bodies within a single planetary system. Spaceflights become interplanetary by accelerating spacecrafts beyond ...

images were used to illustrate books by Philip K. Dick, including ''

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? ''Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?'' (retrospectively titled ''Blade Runner: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?'' in some later printings) is a 1968 dystopian science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick. It is set in a post- ...

'' which was used as the foundation for the 1982 film ''

Blade Runner ''Blade Runner'' is a 1982 science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott from a screenplay by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples. Starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, and Edward James Olmos, it is an adaptation of Philip K. Di ...

''. Moore was known for his

airbrush An airbrush is a small, air-operated tool that atomizes and sprays various media, most often paint, but also ink, dye, and make-up. Spray painting developed from the airbrush and is considered to employ a type of airbrush. History Up unt ...

ed style and his artwork was used for books by science fiction authors

Isaac Asimov Isaac Asimov ( ; – April 6, 1992) was an Russian-born American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University. During his lifetime, Asimov was considered one of the "Big Three" science fiction writers, along with Robert A. H ...

Ursula K. Le Guin Ursula Kroeber Le Guin ( ; Kroeber; October 21, 1929 – January 22, 2018) was an American author. She is best known for her works of speculative fiction, including science fiction works set in her Hainish universe, and the ''Earthsea'' fantas ...

H.G. Wells Herbert George Wells (21 September 1866 – 13 August 1946) was an English writer, prolific in many genres. He wrote more than fifty novels and dozens of short stories. His non-fiction output included works of social commentary, politics, hist ...

, and

Alastair Reynolds Alastair Preston Reynolds (born 13 March 1966) is a Welsh science fiction author. He specialises in hard science fiction and space opera. Early life Reynolds was born in Wales and spent his early years in Cornwall before moving back to Wales, ...

. His design was sold as

wallpaper Wallpaper is used in interior decoration to cover the interior walls of domestic and public buildings. It is usually sold in rolls and is applied onto a wall using wallpaper paste. Wallpapers can come plain as "lining paper" to help cover uneve ...

merchandise for the 1980 film ''

The Empire Strikes Back ''The Empire Strikes Back'' (also known as ''Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back'') is a 1980 American epic film, epic space opera film directed by Irvin Kershner from a screenplay by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan, based o ...

''. Non science fiction authors whose work he provided covers for include

Jeffrey Archer Jeffrey Howard Archer, Baron Archer of Weston-super-Mare (born 15 April 1940) is an English novelist and former politician. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Louth (Lincolnshire) from 1969 to 1974, but did not seek re-election after a fina ...

Frederick Forsyth Frederick McCarthy Forsyth ( ; 25 August 1938 – 9 June 2025) was an English novelist and journalist. He was best known for thrillers such as ''The Day of the Jackal'', ''The Odessa File'', ''The Fourth Protocol'', ''The Dogs of War (novel), ...

Jackie Collins Jacqueline Jill Collins (4 October 1937 – 19 September 2015) was an English romance novelist and actress. She moved to Los Angeles in 1985 and spent most of her career there. She wrote 32 novels, all of which appeared on The New York Times B ...

, Claire Francis,

Jerzy Kosiński Jerzy Kosiński (; born Józef Lewinkopf; 14 June 19333 May 1991) was a Jewish-Polish-American writer and two-time president of the American chapter of P.E.N., who wrote primarily in English. Born in Poland, he survived World War II there, ...

, Stephen Leather,

Wilbur Smith Wilbur Addison Smith (9 January 1933 – 13 November 2021) was a Northern Rhodesian-born British-South African novelist specializing in historical fiction about international involvement in Southern Africa across four centuries. He gained a f ...

, Terence Strong,

Joseph Heller Joseph Heller (May 1, 1923 – December 12, 1999) was an American author of novels, short stories, plays, and screenplays. His best-known work is the 1961 novel '' Catch-22'', a satire on war and bureaucracy, whose title has become a synonym for ...

, and Colin Forbes. Moore died on 7 February 2025, at the age of 77.

Collections

* * *

References

External links

Biography
from the artist's extensive website. * * 1947 births 2025 deaths British illustrators British science fiction artists {{UK-illustrator-stub