The Many Faces of A House Called Askival – A Fascinating Look at a Book's Cover Journey from the Perspective of its Author, Merryn Glover
Credit: Stewart Grant
Merryn Glover writes fiction, drama and journalism. In a life spent crossing cultures, she was brought up in South Asia, went to University in Australia and has called Scotland home for nearly 30 years. Her plays and short stories have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and Radio Scotland and widely anthologised. Her first novel, A House Called Askival is set in an Indian hill-station, where she went to school, and her second, Of Stone and Sky, in the Badenoch region of the Cairngorms National Park where she now lives. It won Book of the Year at the Bookmark Book Festival and was long-listed for the Highland Book Prize. Her upcoming book is The Hidden Fires: A Cairngorms Journey with Nan Shepherd, Polygon Books March 2023. With musician, Hamish Napier, she co-hosts The Storylands Sessions, a series of music and story events. Find her at www.merrynglover.com and on social media.
It was one of the most exciting days of my author life till then. I was going to meet the publisher for my debut novel and discuss cover designs. It rated closely behind the day a few months before when their email had arrived accepting it, especially after the countless rejections. Freight Books was an offshoot of Freight Design so, unsurprisingly, they produced beautiful-looking books with striking covers. I was glad to be given a say. Many publishers do not consult authors and many authors are dismayed by their covers. But this was a small independent press and indies tend to foster a closer relationship.
Merryn at Freight Books 2013
The director, Adrian Searle, sat me down to look at a spread of existing designs for books in my genre (accessible literary fiction) and subject area (India, historical with a contemporary frame). The table was a gathering from my dream dinner party: Arundhati Roy, Amitav Ghosh, Salman Rashdie, Kiran Desai. There was also a collection of photographs from the setting of my book: the hillstation of Mussoorie in Uttarakhand, north India, where I went to school. Alongside the panoramic sweep of the Himals, there were scenes of the town sprawled across the ridges, deodar forests and the jewel colours of sunset.
We talked about how cover designs work: they should not attempt to tell the story, but to tell the reader what kind of story this is. Primarily, they need to draw people to pick it up and flip to the blurb or the opening pages. It’s an inviting doorway into the world of the book. So, there was an immediate challenge with mine. The novel is set entirely in India but the title - A House Called Askival - references Scotland. It’s because the colonial bungalow at the centre of my story was built by a Scottish army captain and named for a mountain on his native island of Rum.
Freight added ‘A novel’ to the title, lest there be any doubt, and set out to ensure the cover signalled ‘India’ loud and clear. Among the mock up options was a photo of an old wooden door in an elaborate Moghul frame. Of course, it was nothing like the creaking screen door of Askival, falling apart for much of the book, but I loved it. A small lock held its weathered panels shut and spoke perfectly of the secrets of house and family. My only concern was its vibrant orange pallette. To me, this spoke of the heat and intensity of the plains, not the cool, quiet of the hills in autumn. The story takes place almost entirely from August to October, with monsoon so dominant she is like another character. I suggested greens, blues and greys; trees and mist; a ruin. Apparently, according to Freight, green covers don’t sell well. Who knew?
A few weeks later, they emailed a completely new idea. “We commissioned an illustration which is quite painterly - at once saying literary and also 'epic'. We went with the girl only as this reflects the primary readership and there was a danger of a man and a girl being too ambiguous, in terms of what their relationship is.” A red-headed teenager in skinny jeans stood gazing out at the mountains. My heart plummetted. It was skillfully done but all wrong to me. Sure, my American character Ruth is a teenager for much of the story, but her father is equally important, as is the wider story of the Indians they live amongst.
I immediately sent it off to a handful of folk who had read it and asked for their opinions, not giving mine. They were all apologetic about their honesty, but I was relieved. I emailed the responses back to Freight with the subject line: Everything But the Girl. The comments included:
‘A cross between M M Kaye's Far Pavilions and a work of teen fiction… Escapist, dreamy. Not quite the work of a serious adult literary novelist?’
‘Will this look like chic lit? Doesn't capture the strength of the book. Men wouldn't pick it up.’
‘I think the figure somehow diminishes that sense of mystery and turns it more into a girl’s adventure in the mountains. Makes it look a bit lightweight.’
I added, ‘Yes, the story contains a moody teenage girl, but a huge amount more. Three of the main characters are men. The story includes a whole chapter on hunting, the devastation of partition, the communal violence of both '47 and '84, Gurkhas, murderous mobs, a shooting, a lynching, a fatal fall, the breaking of religious taboos, sexual transgression... and so on.’
I accepted that most book readers and buyers were women, and that so-called ‘women’s fiction’ is commercially successful. Its covers often feature women, often gazing off into the distance. It looked to me that Freight were trying to position Askival in that market. While I would welcome higher sales, I wasn’t convinced the ploy would work. There is a risk the wrong readers choose it and are disappointed and the right readers never discover it. Yes, the cover needs to draw the reader, but the book then needs to deliver on that promise. At the end of my email, I asked if we could revisit the Moghul door. Bright orange, no bar.
To his credit, Adrian phoned me immediately and said not to worry. The Girl was out, the Door was in. It soon graced the hardback, in slightly more subdued tones, with overlaid paisley corners, and a font hinting at Devanagari script. No way anyone could miss the India signs or the sense of intrigue. I loved it and readers did too.
Design: Kulbir Gharra
A year later, Freight published the paperback and took a radically different approach. Coming out in May and featuring in WH Smith’s travel bookshops, it needed to look like the perfect holiday read. This time the cover was a bold grid of zingy colours, clean capitals and small, but striking images. The ornate verandah of an old colonial building particularly excited me as it is a photo of the actual Mussoorie library; Ganesh the elephant god signalled the religious themes; an Indian woman’s eye was suitably ‘Come hither’; the Himalayas were there and - in an elegant nod to the hardback - an old lock, which sat on the spine as well. I was thrilled.
My readers were divided. Those who had passionately loved the stately mystique of the first cover (including some who had also seen the dreaded Girl) could not accept this jazzed-up imposter. For them, the story was forever framed by the crumbling splendour of a musty Moghul arch and not to be cheapened by day-glo. New readers, however, jumped at the paperback and featured it on Favourite Cover Design blogs.
Design: Kulbir Gharra
For this article, I managed to trace Kulbir Gharra, the designer of both those covers and invited her reflections.
“It’s been almost a decade, but A House called Askival will always hold a special place in my heart as it was the first title that I designed covers for at Freight books. Highlights included putting together the mood boards as I love gathering inspiration with a sense of freedom and play. This is possibly the most important stage in the process for me, as it’s where the concepts are born. I’m Scottish-Indian, so with the setting of A House called Askival, you can imagine the endless possibilities in colours, imagery and textures. My excitement was on another level with 15 pages of source material! I was thrilled to hear that some of it struck a chord with Merryn, the person I had to impress and whose voice I had to convey. That enthusiasm fuelled both the hardback with the old wooden door and lock and the paperback, picking up the pace and conveying the story with a renewed perspective. Even now, I find myself imagining A House called Askival as a film. Who would direct it? Who would feature on the soundtrack? Most importantly, what would the film artwork look like? Hold on, I’ll just refer back to my 15 moodboards.”
Two years later, sadly, Freight Books folded. I got the rights back, re-uploaded to Amazon and bought the remaining stock. Fast forward another two years and those copies were nearly gone. It was time for a new edition and a new cover. By then, my second novel, Of Stone and Sky, had come out with Polygon Books and I had been so captivated by the cover designed by Abigail Salvesen that I commissioned her to do the next iteration for Askival.
Design: Abigail Salvesen
I wanted to echo elements of the new novel to bring a unity to the titles. They would have the same fonts, complimentary palletes and overlapping textures to create a landscape. Mountains are my heartland and important to both novels, so that would be another resonance.
The challenge, again, was to suggest India. Abi used hand-made paper and Indian block print textures, but these were subtle. Testing the cover in a Facebook group revealed that while most people loved the design, few recognised the setting. I asked her to put a ghostly ruin in the foreground, but it suggested horror, so we swiped that. I then plumped for a simple gold cut-out of a Hindu shrine which not only stamped the location clearly and hinted at the religious elements, but also added an eye-catching splash of brightness.
Here are Abi’s thoughts. 'I was delighted when Merryn asked me to create a new cover for Askival to pair with my design for Of Stone and Sky. I so enjoyed designing that cover and Merryn had been a pleasure to work with. In my experience, working independently with authors tends to be more straightforward than the often drawn-out and contentious process of cover approval within a publisher! We had a shared vision for the design from the start; a rural Himalayan landscape rich with texture, bright colours and Indian patterns. Merryn provided some stunning reference photos and her own experience in India was helpful in picking out certain elements of the scene - the native Deodar trees, and the iconic shape of the shrine - that helped to convey the setting more clearly. The illustrative style intends to reflect Merryn’s evocative writing, and the finished cover will, I hope, draw readers into her wonderfully vivid and poignant story.’
Design: Abigail Salvesen
It was a hugely rewarding process for me to work directly with a cover designer, but also to benefit from the experience of the preceding covers. As I launch this new edition on the 75th Anniversary of India’s Independence, I’m excited to welcome new readers through the door of A House Called Askival.
Editor, artworker and lifelong bibliophile.