Introductory remarks from ReadingRoom literary editor Steve Braunias: Tribute has already been paid to Keely O’Shannessy, New Zealand’s best book cover artist, by five authors in ReadingRoom last week. A sixth had been asked: Eleanor Catton. Her debut novel, The Rehearsal (2008), was also Keely’s debut, the first cover that she designed for Victoria University Press. Keely went on to enjoy an especially close relationship with the publisher and designed many book covers for authors such as Annaleese Jochems (Baby, 2017, when she came up with the cover idea of a great big jam sandwich on white bread) and Dinah Hawken (her smudgy, fragile cover image for Peace and Quiet, 2026, was her final cover before cancer did its worst. Keely passed away earlier this month four days before she would have turned 50). A glorious career; and it all began with Eleanor Catton. Her reply came in late last week, sent from her home in England.
Eleanor Catton: I was very lucky to have Keely O’Shannessy as the designer for my debut novel The Rehearsal. A book’s cover is essential in shaping a reader’s first impressions and expectations for a story, often in many more ways than we’re aware of when a book first catches our eye (or doesn’t) in a bookshop or a library.
Keely was generous enough to send her mock-up of The Rehearsal with careful notes explaining each design choice: the “soft and cool” colour palette, the “mystique” of the slightly fuzzy focus, the “posed and purposeful” body language of the girl, whose face we can’t see, the suggestion of a stage in the floorboards, the paperclip and torn piece of script that hinted at a work in progress.
I loved it at first sight, and as we continued to make small changes in the months leading up to publication, Keely suggested more ideas: the uncoated cover, which would make handling the book a sensual experience, almost like touching fabric; the large flaps, which would give the book a literary heft.
Rereading our correspondence now, 18 years later, I’m struck by how much of the book is there in her design—not just plot elements, but moral implications, authorial intentions, tone. Her cover has indelibly fused with the story in my mind—it is the book.
