The Cricket on the Hearth

The new edition of Granta (101) was waiting behind the door when I got in yesterday and I have to say it’s a beautiful book. I generally don’t care about books as objects. I’m far more interested in their contents. But this book really is lovely.

They have a new editor and a new design. The cover is simpler and whiter with a photo of a drawn stage curtain. There is no longer a theme for every issue. This edition has writing from the likes of Douglas Coupland, Hilary Mantel, Andrew Hussey, Joshua Ferris and Annie Proulx. There is also photo essays and poetry.

Douglas Coupland’s piece is a really interesting one on Visual Thinking. I had never really thought about the topic before but it’s about how words and books can be art objects themselves independent of their meaning.

In fact this is precisely how I felt about Granta itself and it has made me think again about my love of books. When I first got into reading a child it was the touch and smell of a new book which I enjoyed as much as the stories themselves. I had forgotten this for a long time but now I realise that it’s still true.