Do you judge a book by its cover?

We spend a huge amount of time talking about cover designs for our books - as we should, given it's such an important ingredient in a book's success. Dare I say, in many cases, it is the key ingredient. At A&B we are lucky enough to have two excellent freelance designers who work with us: Ben from Brighton Studios based in .... Hove, actually. And Emma from Snowbooks Design, part of the marvellous Snowbooks publishing house. We've even been known to do a few covers ourselves in-house, and plan to do more in the future.

Yesterday, it was Ben's turn on the rack. One of the things we talked about was a new look for a classic that we publish at A&B, Iris Origo's haunting memoir War in Val d'Orcia. I am not exaggerating when I say this is my favourite book on our list. I first read it 20 years ago when my Mum gave me a copy, and since then it's remained a desert-island book for me. Origo, an Englishwoman by birth was married to the Marchese of La Foce, a stunning estate in the heart of Tuscany. Her memoir centres on two years during WWII when the family found themselves in the thick of the war, with partisans hiding in the hills, Germans at their door, and looking after a host of children who had been evacuated from the cities.

But I digress. What to do? Do we have a lovely Tuscan photo on the front, complete with sunflowers and idyllic villa? Or a shot of the German tanks thundering down the cypress tree-lined roads around La Foce? Or one of Iris with the children she housed during the War? Decisions, decisions. I'll let you know what we go with ...