The visual image I have of Colin MacInnes’ books has been tarnished by 1980’s jacket designs — the film tie-in with Absolute Beginners or post-Quadrophenia Mod iconography of Lambrettas, targets and cappuccinos. How much more germane the illustrations are by Peter Blake for a run of Penguin editions from 1964. Utterly contemporary, without recourse to cliché – there’s not even an echo of Blake’s imagery in the subsequent heritage biscuit tin designs. The author’s photograph by Don McCullin, showing McInnes dragging on a dog-end, further adds to the class, in all senses of the term, that these editions exude.