Martin Baker: Cover Artist - Christie's Fontana Covers 1981-86.

This article is an in-depth look at Martin Baker, a cover artist for Fontana who created numerous covers for their Agatha Christie titles in the early 1980s. At the foot of this article is a complete collectors guide with every title he created a cover for and its series number.

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Ever since Agatha Christie’s first book, published in the US in 1920, the cover artist has been an integral part of the reader’s experience. The artist who painted that 1920 cover for The Mysterious Affair at Styles was Alfred Dewey – likely a name unfamiliar to all but the most obsessive Christie fans.

The first Agatha Christie dust jacket (1920).

In fact, many of Christie’s cover artists remain unknown to this day, whether literally because their identity has never been determined or because they remain in the shadows despite their affiliation with the most successful novelist of all time. In fact, many artists never even benefitted from having their names credited on the books as the artist - whether explicitly or through a signature in artwork.

There are a few artists who are well known to fans of Christie. One such artist is Robin ‘Mac’ Macartney who created four beloved jackets for Collins first editions in the 1930s, such as Death on the Nile and Murder in Mesopotamia.

Another is certainly Tom Adams, who in the 1960s and 70s rose to prominence for his Fontana paperback covers which are still widely found and collected today.

Fontana's Paperbacks.

When Fontana paperbacks first launched in 1953, the artist who created many of those early covers was John Rose (four examples below). Unlike many of the paperbacks from other publishers in years prior which had no art, Fontana differentiated themselves with these covers.

A decade after their first paperback, Fontana hired Tom Adams to create covers for them - a relationship that lasted 17 years. When it ended in 1980, a new artist needed to be found. Fontana would task this artist with the brief of creating a new design aesthetic for Christie paperbacks. The chosen artist was Martin Baker – someone who deserves to be broadly known and recognized for his contribution to the world of Agatha Christie.

Martin Baker - the Artist.

Martin Baker was born in 1942. He attended the Brighton College of Art (1957-1960) where he trained as an artist. He initially found himself working in advertising with Ogilvy & Mather (1961-1969), both with their London and Milan agencies. From that profession he moved onto illustrating and gained numerous commissions, including illustrating children’s books. As an aside, Martin has also created his own children’s book – Wellington the Tin Soldier – and was approached by Ted Hughes who asked if he could write the text for it.

In addition to illustrating children’s books, Martin also wrote and illustrated features on classical music for the BBC and major record companies. From 1972, aged 30, his love of classical music led to a career working for the world's leading classical music label, Deutsche Grammophon and Archiv Produktion Records, where he wrote publicity and musicological texts. He also contributed illustrations on musical themes to Radio Times and Glyndebourne Festival Opera. His work for Radio Times put him in rarified air, as that publication had commissioned and reproduced work by some of the finest illustrators of the twentieth century - including Quentin Blake, Paul Nash, W Heath Robinson, and Ronald Searle. His work for Radio Times would be revisited in later years when the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford invited him to curate an exhibition in 2002 titled ‘The Art of Radio Times’. To accompany this exhibition, Martin wrote an authoritative history about the artists, the publication, and included a curated selection of almost 100 illustrations.

Two of his own illustrations are highlighted, including the January 1982 illustration of Elgar and the July 1982 cover with Berlioz. Over the years, his features on art and music have been broadcast by the BBC on Radio Three and Four and published in The Times, The Telegraph and the Guardian.

More recently while enjoying an artist’s retirement in Oxfordshire (i.e. one never stops working), Martin has focused on satire, publishing various items under pseudonyms. These include Algonquin N. Park’s ‘Parodies Lost’ and Dymphna Ironthigh’s ‘Lady Ironthigh’s Black Book’. He has also contributed humorous features to various British and American magazines, including Punch.

Baker's Christie Years.

In 1980, Martin was approached by Fontana Books to illustrate a new edition of Agatha Christie’s books which were to be mostly the Poirot novels. The art editor gave Martin artistic freedom and initially just asked for a rough sketch to see where Martin’s ideas would take the design elements. As an artist, Martin was already in awe of the work Tom Adams had done, so accepting the challenge to follow in his footsteps but steer Fontana in a new direction would not be an easy task.

The first book Martin tackled was Cat Among the Pigeons. His idea was simple – an image of a cat among pigeon feathers painted against a grass tennis court background.

The design was accepted, and a five-year partnership began. This original design where an actual animal was used as a illustrative metaphor for the book was revisited numerous times during his years at Fontana, such as with Five Little Pigs, Hickory Dickory Dock, Ordeal by Innocence and Crooked House.

In my conversation with Martin, he indicated that he really enjoyed the design process. While Fontana was based in the Collins offices on Grafton Street in Mayfair, London, Martin worked out of his own studio. After the first few covers were deemed successful, he was given free range under the objective of creating covers that would sell the books. The design process was to create simple elements – preferably a single core image – that would appeal to the book buyer. These core elements were usually metaphorical or symbolic, rather than portraying actual scenes or clues from the novel. The design was usually sketched out and then coloured in by brush. The early covers were created with Winsor & Newton gouache, before changing to acrylic ink on art board, and for the final designs he even integrated the use of an air brush. While artistic credit was not given on the books, the initials MB do appear in many of the covers and for some finding them is a fun challenge.

Martin’s aesthetic was certainly a change of direction and in contrast to the perception that Christie’s novels are cozy drawing room mysteries. Martin’s reading of her novels showed him that many of the stories actually involved quite grizzly and brutal murders. As he shared with me, he saw nothing pleasant about the crimes – but often found them gruesome and quite bloody. Martin chose to lean on that reality by incorporating a fair amount of blood in his images – something that was in marked contrast to most of the Fontana covers from the prior three decades. This aesthetic even led to feedback from Agatha Christie Limited nearer the end of his tenure that there perhaps was too much blood!

Insights into a Few of the Covers.

Martin’s first cover – Cat Among the Pigeons – is his favourite both because it began the journey but also because the cat shown was his own beloved cat named ‘Fido’. However, Fontana published it simultaneously with two other new designs, Hallowe'en Party and The Clocks, which numerically precede CATP in Fontana Series numbering though there were all issued at the same time.

Another favourite of his is Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? as he enjoyed the design of the skull as a golf ball. This was a design style he also used on The Sittaford Mystery and Evil Under the Sun.

When Martin was asked to design the cover for And Then There Were None, Fontana was still publishing the book with its original, and offensive, title of Ten Little N’s. It was the only cover Martin was not pleased to do as he would have preferred to design artwork that would be used on a book with the now commonly accepted name. Out of frustration for the inflexibility, Martin basically just painted a red herring for the cover – literally red with blood. The red herring is his subtle hint towards the book’s denouement. Two years after the book was published with Martin’s cover in 1982, Fontana did change the title to And Then There Were None (1984) so his design can be found on both versions of the book.

For Murder is Easy, Martin’s original design was the Statue of Lady Justice atop the Old Bailey in London looming over an automobile’s grill - arguably Lord Whitfield’s Rolls Royce. While one’s memory can be challenged looking back 40 years, Martin thinks he initially created the design without the Rolls Royce logo with Fontana modifying it to add the logo. In 1983, this logo design was the first version published. When the book was republished in 1985, the logo was gone and the cover used was Martin’s original creation with a chiseled cross on the grill. The reasons for the change are unclear and fuzzy but it offers a unique twist to this cover with two variants.

For The ABC Murders, when he decided he wanted to paint handcuffs, he walked to the local police station where he asked if he could photograph some that he could then use as a source image. Despite some initial odd reactions from the policeman on staff, handcuffs were made available. In fact, many of Martin’s images relied on actual source imagery to assist with the creative process. For example, for the cover of Hickory, Dickory, Dock Martin wanted to find a dead mouse but could only find a dead vole in his garden – so he made do!

As mentioned earlier, his covers must generally be viewed as a metaphor for the novel. When considered through this lens, the creativity of his artwork becomes clearer. I think Crooked House, Hallowe’en Party, Ordeal by Innocence and Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case are all designs that clearly illustrate this. Some designs are also just plain fun – three of my favourite are Cards on the Table, The Seven Dials Mystery and Sparking Cyanide.

The Foxtails.

When Martin’s time with Fontana ended in 1985, to my best count he had created sixty-six different covers for Christie books. This is a remarkable output of almost one per month. While his first artwork was created in 1980, his first cover did not appear in print until February 1981. His last original artwork appeared on the January 1986 cover of Third Girl.

These covers from the early 1980s are collectively known as ‘foxtail’ covers by collectors because of the font style used for Agatha Christie’s name. If you look at the ‘g’ in Agatha it can easily be claimed to resemble a fox’s tail.

In addition to Martin’s covers, Fontana reused four Tom Adams covers on these foxtail editions in 1981 - likely to support the volume of covers needed and ease the burden on Martin. These are The Murder at the Vicarage (tennis racket design), At Bertram’s Hotel (the hand holding the bullet), Death Comes as the End (Egyptian tomb setting) and Mrs. McGinty’s Dead (the large fly!). These are the only four Adams 'foxtails'.

One of the foxtail books also has a grammatical error on the cover - though perhaps easy to miss - with A Pocket Full of Rye being published as A Pocketful of Rye. The text on the cover was added by the in-house art department, not the artist, but this error makes this book unique.

Values and Collectability.

Most of the foxtail covers sell for used book prices. However, there are a few that are scarcer and worthy of a premium when acquiring. The most valuable of all of them is the first iteration of And Then There Were None when it was published with its original title. Others that can command a premium, though lesser, are both covers for Murder is Easy and A Pocketful of Rye with its misspelt title.

As the years go by, nostalgia meets scarcity. Paperbacks wear out easily and very good copies become rarer. While Tom Adams books are highly sought after today, a lot of that is due to the fact that people in their 50s and 60s with discretionary funds are collecting things they remember as a child. Over the next decade, I expect a new generation of Christie fans who grew up reading books with Martin Baker covers will start building foxtail collections - so if they appeal to you start now while the supply is more abundant. The complete collectors guide with all the titles and the book numbers is at the foot of this article.

Summary.

I believe that the continued success of Agatha Christie has been aided by the work of many different cover artists over the years and Martin Baker deserves credit as one of them. He had several challenges to overcome. First, he was following the designs of Tom Adams that in their day had already proved alluring and successful. Second, with Christie’s passing in 1976 and the last new Fontana collection published in 1979 (Miss Marple’s Final Cases), he was the first artist to create covers for Christie that would not benefit from the sales that came with a new release title. Martin was effectively tasked with driving sales to a back catalogue of titles – no easy feat, yet he accomplished it.

A thank you needs to be given to Tim Kitchen at tikit.net who saved me a lot of time by graciously allowing me to use images he’s already scanned from his collection for these covers. His website is an excellent resource for paperback fans in general, especially of Pan books. See: tikit.net for more details.

Lastly, I want to thank Martin for taking the time to talk with me and share his insights into his covers and for allowing all these images to be shared publicly.

Complete Foxtail Collectors Guide.

Fontana continued to number all the books, as they had since inception. By now all these books have a ‘0006-1’numerical prefix, followed by the 4-digit book number and then a check digit suffix (which is occasionally an ‘X’). This now conforms with the ISBN numbering system. All covers are by Martin Baker unless otherwise noted. Images of all covers are provided below that have not previously been shown.

1981:

6130: Murder at the Vicarage (Tom Adams).

6171: At Bertram’s Hotel. (Tom Adams).

6172: Hallowe'en Party.

6173: The Clocks.

6174: Cat Among the Pigeons.

6263: Sparkling Cyanide. 

6264: Elephants Can Remember.

6274: The Thirteen Problems.

6275: After the Funeral.

6281: Cards on the Table. 

6301: N or M?

6371: Mrs. McGinty's Dead (Tom Adams).

6372: Five Little Pigs.

6373: Death Comes as the End (Tom Adams).

6385: Towards Zero.

6424: Ordeal by Innocence.

6425: The Listerdale Mystery.

6435: A Caribbean Mystery.

6438: The Pale Horse.

6449: A Passenger to Frankfurt.

1982:

6477: Parker Pyne Investigates.

6527: Postern of Fate

6528: A Murder is Announced.

6533: Sleeping Murder.

6539: Lord Edgware Dies.

6540: Ten Little N's (Version 1).

6541: The Seven Dials Mystery.

6551: The Hollow.

6559: They Do It With Mirrors.

6570: By the Pricking of My Thumbs.

6605: They Came to Baghdad.

6606: Why Didn't They Ask Evans?

6613: Peril at End House.

6651: The Mysterious Mr. Quin.

6662: Evil Under the Sun.

6691: One, Two, Buckle my Shoe.

1983:

6712: Poirot's Early Cases.

6714: Murder in the Mews.

6719: 4:50 From Paddington.

6720: Sad Cypress.

6724: The A.B.C. Murders.

6749: The Body in the Library.

6792: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.

6795: Miss Marple's Final Cases.

6800: Curtain: Poirot's Last Case.

6803: Dead Man's Folly.

6808: Dumb Witness.

6813: Murder is Easy (Version 1).

6816: The Sittaford Mystery.

6817: The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding.

6823: Endless Night.

6832: Hercule Poirot's Christmas.

6864: Crooked House.

6868: Partners in Crime.

1984:

6540: And Then There Were None (Version 2).

6889: Taken at the Flood.

6891: A Pocketful of Rye (mistyped title).

6895: Death on the Nile.

6916: Destination Unknown.

6918: The Big Four.

6922: At Bertram's Hotel.

6926: Death in the Clouds.

6930: The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side.

7000: Hickory, Dickory, Dock.

7005: Nemesis.

7006: Murder on the Orient Express.

1985:

6813: Murder is Easy (Version 2).

7070: Murder in Mesopotamia.

7076: The Mystery of the Blue Train.

7104: The Hound of Death.

7118: The Labours of Hercules.

1986:

7263: Third Girl (January).

Corrections Welcome.

As always, if you have any additions, corrections or comments, please email me at collectchristie@gmail.com . It is very possible a few of the year allocations are not correct.

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