A quick post to note how much I admire the jacket design of David Peace’s remarkable novel “The Damned Utd”. Successful jacket design is a mysterious alchemy of elements, somehow blending the essence of the book with eye-catching salesmanship, whiel at all times avoiding being overly literal where imagery and graphics are concerned.
The jacket image, attributed to Peace himself, brialliantly conjures up the animosity and hatred felt towards the championship winning Leeds team. Black graffiti daubs across their eyes, and the eyes of their manager, Brian Clough, further expose the subject’s final unknowableness. Did this man hate them, and himself, so much he was willing to destroy them?