1

The Collector 1962

Novel by John Fowles, Hardback

Murder is Announced 1962

28 x 30cm

Exhibition detail

Tom Adams notes

TOM ADAMS’ AGATHA CHRISTIE COVER STORY

Tom Adams’ agent Virgil Pomfret reminisces on the humble beginnings:

“I can remember my visit to Patsy Cohen, then art-director at

Collins, to show her a first proof for The Collector (John Fowles) and

to suggest that Tom would be the right artist to illustrate the Agatha

Christie paperback covers. She was of course enthusiastic about that

now famous still-life, but responded in her normally cautious manner by

suggesting that Tom should speculatively try one Christie cover, for

Murder is Announced, and, if all went well with that, others might

follow. Tom announced this particular murder agonisingly slowly.

Patsy Cohen’s telephone calls to ascertain progress became more

frequent and increasingly skeptical. When Tom finally delivered the

artwork, at the eleventh hour, all doubts were dispelled – the Adams and Christie styles were

judged a perfect match. They were to be so for twenty years and few would dispute that they

became the best known series of paperback covers throughout the world during that time.”

Adams’ first Christie cover ‘A Murder is announced’ is a straightforward still life, a scene

from the book, clock on the mantelpiece, wilting violets in the vase, bullet holes in the

wallpaper. The cutting from the local paper is the only intrusion on realism. There is a

trompe-l’oeil effect created by the wallpaper background contrasted

with the clock and violets.

“This is one of those I place in my personal category of early

primitives. The newspaper clipping in particular is not very

convincing. The painting took rather a long time to do; I was

nervously aware of how much my future depended on its reception.

In fact it pleased both Mark Collins and Betsy Cohen, at the time

jointly responsible for Fontana covers. I remember my happy

feeling of relief as I basked in their approval.” Tom Adams

The conventional cover for a detective story, whether by Agatha

Christie or another writer, is likely to show some scene such as a

man being hit on the head, or running down a dark alley, or

discarding a pair of bloodstained gloves. The variation of subjects is

endless, but the style does not vary very much. From the beginning

Tom Adams’ covers for Agatha Christie books broke with this

convention. He read the books three times – first very quickly, then

making notes of characters or incidents, and finally to form ideas

for illustration. He had up to half-a-dozen ideas and tried a few out,

before finding something that satisfied him artistically and echoed

something in the book. But he went further, rejecting immediately

the idea of showing Poirot or Miss Marple. The rejection was

instinctive, but he later rationalised it, arguing that “because both

characters were so firmly fixed in the readers imagination they

could never be satisfactorily shown”. Perhaps the rejection was based on the fact that as

subjects they didn’t greatly stir his imagination. He thought there were more interesting things

to be done.

“Tom’s secret as a cover-illustrator above all, lies in his capacity for being oblique,

yet so presenting this obliquity that it constitutes a lure.” (John Fowles)

2

The Collector 1962

Novel by John Fowles Paperback

Murder at the Vicarage 1962

1st version, 30 x 42cm

Murder at the Vicarage 1968

2nd version, 25 x 32cm

1 2

In his cover paintings for John Fowles’ ‘The Collector’ and others,

already experimenting very successfully in one of his favored

techniques trompe-l’oeil, he continued throughout his career to perfect

this unusual and delicate approach to making his marks. Purely by this

ingenious technique we are immediately thrown into an atmosphere of

mystery, bordering on the surreal. Remembering that this was long

before cut and paste on the touch of a button, it clearly appealed to

Tom’s playful and dare I say slightly mischievous nature in his desire to

create surprising juxtapositions that often and unbeknown to us, will

include elements of his personal musings and wonder.

Tom had taken the utilitarian task of creating a book cover ‘design’ to

an extraordinary plain. His painstaking professionalism has led him to

dive deeply into the core of the stories in search for ‘his imagery’ of the mystery of the story

and its writers. He does not stop there. He researches with greatest pleasure every element

that he chooses to use in the paintings, thus revealing his personal symbolism to us while

merely teasing the reader. Indeed through our conversations I am certain that Tom revels in

his research as much as he loves the process of composing the paintings.

It is this great care and attention to detail combined with his unique imaginal thought and

entirely subjective approach that make these paintings iconic. Virgil Pomfret rightly remarks

“… Tom is a stickler for detail, he is seldom satisfied with any finished result and

sometimes, as the observant viewer may notice, he will continue to work on a

painting even after it has been printed and appeared on the book shelf’s.”

Of course this explains the intriguing conundrum of a variation of dates on the occasional

multiple versions of some nearly identical paintings.

On some occasions, the artist simply decided that his first version will not do for a re-print

and thus created an entirely new image, as he did for example in ‘Murder at the Vicarage’.

Version one painted in 1962 is a simple

still life with all the items on the shelf

playing a part in the story. Perhaps

quite rightly so, Adams himself puts

the painting into the category of his

early primitives. Authenticity was his

obsession and to him it was an exercise

to learn how to paint guns,

“…generally speaking, an untidy and

unresolved conglomeration”,

he mutters dissatisfied even now, fifty

years on.

(Adams achievement in his quest for perfection in the

painting of guns comes clear in his covers ‘The mysterious

Mr Quin’1 and ‘They do it with mirrors’ 2).

3

Sparkling Cyanide UK 1970 25 x 33cm

Remembered Death US version of

Sparkling Cyanide

Evil under the Sun UK 1964 22 x 28cm

Much happier he talks about the second version of ‘Murder at the Vicarage’ painted only a

short while later. This now iconic Magritte-like image depicts Adams’ ingenious ability that

blends the atmosphere of the tale, with his personal investigations into nature, philosophy and

design. Adams is keen to point out, that the Dunlop people lent him one of the early rackets

from their archive collection and that the shape was in the process of changing to the more

familiar silhouette at the time this first Miss Marple mystery was published in the 1930’s.

Then, there is the demand of the US market that requires a different approach to the

covers. Often starting with a different title to the same story, apparently Adams was under

strict instructions to paint very realistic covers for the US, whereas Fontana UK gave no

instructions of any kind. By the time Adams painted the cover for ‘Sparkling Cyanide’ UK,

he was well rehearsed in painting most effective sill-life

images; simplicity in content and design a lesson he learned

early on. It is difficult to say what is menacing about the

almost Dutch still-life cover with the simple champagne glass,

the evening bag, and the little bit of white powder on paper,

yet it threatens, something evil waits.

Interestingly, in the

American cover of the

same story

‘Remembered Death’ he

takes the graphic

simplicity to a new

extreme with an

exaggerated perspective

technique by placing the rosemary twigs right to the

forefront of the picture; this unusual perspective

perhaps one way to circumnavigate strict instructions.

Noticeably his covers for the American market seem to

reveal Adams’ strong sense of structure and perspective

undoubtedly influenced by his architect ancestors, more

so, than in his UK versions, where the freedom to play

produced a larger variety of different realms and atmospheres.

This does not mean that one or the other variety was always more or less successful. Either

way, Tom Adams would be the first one to say that he did not always get it right the first

time. What is intriguing is, how often he arrived at so very different compositions for the

same story:

‘Evil under the Sun’ the English version, was an attempt to develop a more painterly quality

to his work. Adams only comment on this paining:

‘..for artists the road to perfection, which in itself is a mirage, has

many seductive but dead-end side tracks like this.’

4

Evil under the Sun US version 40 x 32cm

Exhibition Detail

Driftwood, Tom Adams Collection

But then we look at the

stunning American

version, painted only a

short while later and we

not only have to wonder

what Christie’s tale might

have in store for us but

curious about the artists

infusion of his personal

life into this painting and indeed many of the others. I can’t help

thinking, that more often than not Adams is telling us more than

one story, and that it is exactly this blend of Christie’s tale with

his own, that made the majority of his covers so curiously

accessible and successful.

The writer and friend John Fowles who knew Tom Adams better than most during these two

decades, has been observing the artists continual quest in trying to getting it right:

“Novels must always remain primarily their texts; and the jacket must always, I

suppose, be mainly classed as a part of the selling process, the luring of the potential

customer inside the covers (though only fools and the very highbrow imagine that the

luring and selling stops at the printed page). Yet it seems to me that creating a good

pictorial jacket for fiction – a glance in any bookseller’s window on either side of the

Atlantic will, alas, proof how rare an achievement this remains – is something more

then the purely commercial art which is how too many publishers still view it. At its

best it requires gifts beyond mere ingenuity, calculation, flair. It will show an

independence of mind in the artist – an ability to hold author, text and publisher (and

their often clashing demands) at arm’s length, and to find a truly personal solution. I

know how hard Tom has fought on occasion to keep this independence of feeling and

of vision; an obstinacy that is matched in his studio by the enormous care he takes to

achieve the effects he wants. His work speaks for itself. It belongs to one of the most

pleasant traditions in English art.”

WHAT WAS IT THAT KEPT THE ARTIST INTERESTED OVER TWO DECADES?

Robert Barnard’s once wrote about Agatha Christie’s tales:

“And if she had no desire to elevate her ‘trade’ into a ‘profession’ by writing

anything that could be confused with a ‘real novel’, still less was she bitten by the

fine writing bug…. The main characteristic of Agatha Christie’s writing is that one

does not notice it. And that, perhaps, is about the highest praise one could give to a

writer of popular literature.”

Tom Adams responded to the mysteries instinctively:

“Not all of these stories have inspired me and I hope I have been honest enough to

admit this when it has happened. In the main it was a labour of love. There is

something about Agatha Christie stories, journeyman writer though she may have

been, which trigger my imagination. I shall ever be grateful to her.”

5

The Lady in the Lake

Novel by Raymond Chandler

22 x 36cm

Dead Man’s Folly UK 20 x 28cm

Dead Man’s Folly US version Detail, 40 x 30cm

The Mirror cracked from Side to Side

1962, 20 x 29cm

The opportunity to illustrate the Christie stories, provided Adams with the perfect platform on

which he could develop his own tale within the pressures of the reality of life. The particular

subject matter gave him huge scope to experiment as an artist with style and technique across

an extensive historical palette of art, only to find his own language. Living and working in the

midst of the realms and whims of the contemporary art of his pears, he was tirelessly active in

pursuit of this freedom of experimentation that not least, the era provided him with.

A great admirer of the Pre-Raphaelites who’s rejected and forgotten

paintings regained popularity during the sixties, Adams made no

secret of his admiration of his heroes William Holman Hunt and John

Everett Millais. Indeed contemplating the resplendent women as

depicted by Millais, Hunt, Rossetti and others, who’s women are the

most desirable and at the same time most frightening in their

depiction of a kind of sentimental false memory of childhood,

produce in us the effect of terror and at the same time a kind of

attractive repugnance, the perfect blend for a murder mystery.

Naturalist in its meticulous depiction of every detail, every Adams

cover is imbued

with complex

symbolism that

would suggest

another link to the Pre-Raphaelites.

Adams boldly blended details of his

hero’s paintings into his own, it might

be a petal, or a vague gesture, this

discovery is left to the keen observer.

Victoriana another source of inspiration, for the cover ‘The Mirror cracked from side to side’

Adams was borrowing the Lady from a Victorian drawing by J.W. Waterhouse of Tennyson’s

Lady of Shalott.

Out flew the web and floated wide;

The mirror crack’d from side to side;

‘The curse is come upon me’, cried

The Lady of Shalott

Though happy with the composition, typically, Adams was always disappointed with the

quality of the painting itself. He did not think it was doing justice to Waterhouse, a long

forgotten Victorian painter he happens to respect greatly. Yet to the viewer, the contrast

between the delicacy of the foreground figure and that bloodstained staring eye produces an

image of disquiet that is powerfully suited to Christie’s tale. This juxtaposition is another

typical Adams blend of that touch of raw realism with a dreamlike, surreal atmosphere. Close

6

Colonel Sun 1968, 34 x 22cm Novel by Robert Markham

The Vivisector 1970, 61 x 40cm Novel by Patrick White

Destination Unknown US 22 x 36cm

Destination Unknown UK 21 x 35cm

observers will note the metaphoric symbols blending into the background. To most of us, it is

another highly successful composition and one that has become an icon over the years.

Dali being the main source in ‘Destination Unknown’ is no surprise. Classic surrealism

among many things was a precursor to the psychedelic era of the sixties and seventies. A man

of his time and as he mentioned before, it seemed obvious to want to play in this sphere.

Remembering Adams ‘extracurricular’ commissions for example for ‘Colonel Sun’1968, or

‘The Vivisector’1970, he was continually practicing his skill in the challenging obstacles that

would be presenting a surrealist painter.

“Perhaps the very act of

explaining this blatant eclecticism

will seem like an apology but I

must risk that. It is fairly obvious

that the classical surrealism of

Dali and Magritte lends itself

admirably to the symbolist

illustration of thrillers and crime

stories. Perhaps an attempt to

break out of the still-life

straightjacket I had fashioned for

myself.” Tom Adams

Forever seeking perfection, Adams, perhaps with a few exceptions, was rarely truly satisfied

with his works. Like most artists and as with the guns Adams forever sets himself new

challenges. At different times he has particular obsessions in trying to master puzzling

phenomena’s:

Just to find out what actually happens, and still mourning the demise of his favorite tweed

coat, he stabbed the dagger through this tough fabric while working on ‘The murder of Roger

Ackroyd’. The invading flies an obvious symbol of decay, did not require quite the same level

of sacrifice but clearly Tom’s fascination in insects of all kinds turns out to be a useful

interest throughout his career.

A hoarder and an avid collector of the most eclectic selection of artifacts, corpses of insects

and bones, Adams eye for detail does not only satisfy his desire to achieve maximum realism

in his painting, but stems from his lifelong curiosity about the mechanics of all things nature

or otherwise.

When talking about painting ‘The Hallow’ for example he once told me, that curious to see

what happens, he dropped the gun into a paddling pool and unexpectedly there it was, the

minute reflection of the gun in the bubble. The pond-skater added to the composition only

enhancing Tom’s excitement in painting some of his favorite subjects.

7

The Hollow

22 x 36cm

Halloween Party

22 x 27cm

Pouring water over Apple

Archive Photograph

Lord Edgware Dies

20 x 24 cm

“ Like Hockney and other artists I find the distorting effect of water

fascinating. A distorted image is in many ways infinitely more

interesting. Water changes reality and can create an interesting

juxtaposition. A drowned body or anything under water is awful and

terrifying, but at the same time, there is a certain cleansing effect going

on. The water purifies and creates a barrier between you and the

object.”

The apple and its symbolism is another one of Tom’s favorites:

“Corbeil loved painting apples and many artists do. It is a challenge

because painting a round object, particularly one that has a lot of

colour on it, is a great technical challenge. What’s more, it is in a

sense a symbol of life because it rots, it gets wrinkled and brown and

disintegrates – and of course there was the whole business of Adam

and Eve. There is a lot in an apple”.

Confessing that his search for perfectionism on occasions nearly drove him to

destruction, he would not have it any other way. In the name of realism he

experimented with his subjects until he understood exactly what happens with

this or that phenomena.

Looking through a lens not only enables the eye to perceive an

additional perspective but it will capture another wise fleeting

moment of the invisible drama of natures theatre. Adams made

extensive use of the camera and at times developed his

compositions with a kind of pre-computer photo-shop technique.

With an intrinsic love for mystery, his fascination of things that are not as they seem, his

deeply mindful take on the British character, British literature, landscape and architecture,

combined with a quirky, sometimes cutting humor, perhaps the Christie – Adams match

comes as no surprise.

In her Agatha Christie Biography Janet Morgan remarks on this extraordinary disembodied

meeting of the two minds:

“Collins did take trouble, Tom Adams first cover for A

Murder Is Announced in 1962 was followed by over ninety other

designs. Some are grisly – a knife sticks out of Lord Edgware’s

jacket – and some are deceptively serene. All are remarkable and

perceptive, identifying Agatha’s own obsessions – reflection;

refraction; transformation of people, animals, landscape;

malevolence insidiously victimizing innocence. Agatha, and later

her family, found several of these designs disturbing, but

acknowledged, rightly, that every cover was interesting, ingenious

and apt.”

8

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

20 x 26cm

Endless Night 1970/2012 25 x 27cm

On reflection Tom suggests, that his age, (he was older then the average cover painter) and up

bringing helped his instinctive understanding of Agatha Christie and the stories. Although of

slightly impoverished professional middle classes and not nearly as grand as the Christie

family, he had all the right attributes – public school and university education etc. – that at a

modest level, he experienced the same background ambience of most of Christie’s plotting.

“My deeply admiring relationship with her is almost mystical. She

knew and admired some of my work as her paperback cover

illustrator. I knew and admired her as for many years my chief

employer and benefactor. Although arrangements had been made

on a number of occasions for me to meet Agatha Christie, for one

reason or another it never actually happened. Some of my covers

she disliked intensely, and with good reason! Lord Edgware Dies,

for instance, where at the mischievous behest of Mark Collins I

disobeyed my own rule never to show violence – although I tried to

mitigate it with a kind of intense surreal quality. Together with

Mark Collins and my agent Virgil Pomfret, we did occasionally

meet her grandson Mathew Prichard and Agatha Christie’s

daughter, Rosalind Hicks. Agatha Christie was a famously shy and

reclusive person and even though at the time I was disappointed,

in retrospect, I am glad I never met her. She would have been too

embarrassed to discuss my cover paintings and so would I.” Tom Adams

THE MYSTERIES WITHIN THE MYSTERIOUS TALES

Tom Adams continues to paint. Indeed it was in preparation for an

extensive show of his Agatha Christie covers, when a number of

long unresolved mysteries re-emerged:

The Missing Owl Cover ‘Endless Night’ 1970

Tom Adams writes about this intriguing tail for New Fiction

14.6.1978

“I belong to what was not so long ago a small and

insignificant sub-species of the illustrator family; cover

illustrator. I would like to make it quite clear, I am not a

book jacket designer, a much larger and, in many ways,

more legitimate branch of the profession.

The evolution of the cover illustrator sprang from the almost total extinction of the

much lamented book illustrator proper. We are now, I suppose, quite respectable.

People collect the originals of our covers, we win awards; that’s good. But not many

people know about the agonies and frustrations inherent in producing a good cover.

I was young and eager but a preternaturally slow worker. My style was a detailed

trompe l’oeil (‘deceive the eye’, art technique involving extremely realistic imagery

in order to create the optical illusion that the depicted objects appear in three

dimensions) based on exhaustive reading and re-reading and analysis of the books. A

lethal combination for an artist who aims to earn a living! These covers were

successful – too successful. In each case they amounted to about two months’ work. I

have speeded up since then but I constantly regret that I did not adopt a less

demanding style.

9

Exhibition Torquay Museum 2012 Endless Night

For people like me, of course, art directors have to build false deadlines, poor dears.

We know they do, and they know we know and we know they know we know.

Nevertheless, we all play the game in our own way with hysterics, rages and resigned

patience. Art direction in publishing is an unenviable occupation. Those engaged in it

need to be creative and practical, sympathetic and tolerant, wizards of diplomacy and

blenders of talents.

Apart from the everyday problems and distractions like cut fingers, spilt ink, bouts

of flu and articles for New Fiction, the business has its own mysteries too. Some years

ago, the good old Saturday Evening Post commissioned me to illustrate a pre-

publication serializing Agatha Christie’s ‘Endless Night’. I extracted from the story

as my main image, a dead bird pierced with a knife. As I have always found the

stimulus of realism important, my meeting an RSPCA inspector who told me about a

tawny owl which had just died, apparently of starvation, was too good a chance to

miss. A night bird! Perfect.

I collected the still warm body from the inspector. Then the trouble started. I couldn’t

bring myself to stab that lovely plumage. For three days I hesitated. It was a hot

summer. Finally I steeled myself and did the dreadful deed in the name of realism. By

the time I had finished the painting, I had the windows wide open and every fly in

London was homing in on me. But somehow I could not bear to bury that beautiful

body, so I wrapped it in polythene and left it in a box in the garden.

Later, I had to do the cover for Fontana, using the same image. I didn’t fancy

resurrecting my poor dead owl so I sent to New York for my original painting. Sorry,

they said it seems to have completely disappeared. Well that happens of course, so

using the proof of the illustration I re-did the painting and delivered it.

A week later, an aggrieved call from Fontana. Could I please hurry up and finish the

cover. But I delivered it a week ago! Embarrassed art director checks and admits

painting arrived while he was away but it had disappeared. Exhaustive search is

unavailing.

I paint the owl for a third time, reflecting on the significance of the title. The painting

is delivered, deposited in a safe and the cover printed. Sometime later I wanted the

original for an exhibition. You’ve guessed it…..the painting vanished into thin air. I

buried the owl carefully and hope that my punishment for desecrating that beautiful

creature is now over.”

2012 and many more attempts have been

made to find this little painting without

success. Not wanting to miss an opportunity

to put this mystery to bed once and for all and

with one month to go, Tom decides simply to

paint one more version of ‘Endless Night’ for

the exhibition in Torquay Museum August 3rd

– October 2012.

10

Agatha Christie Portrait by Tom Adams 1978

The lost Portrait

In preparation for the exhibition the hunt for original paintings began long in advance. Some

were easy enough to track down and obtain; others required much detective work. The

mystery of the lost portrait of Agatha Christie however, remains unresolved.

Tom Adams recalls:

‘In 1977 I had an exhibition at the

David Mirvish Books Gallery in

Toronto. During my stay in Canada I

was in touch with Collins (Canada)

and suggested to them the idea of a

portrait of Agatha Christie. They

readily agreed and commissioned it. I

based the portrait on a painting by

Richard Dadd – an eccentric English

nineteenth century artist. This picture

contained a marvellous rustic seat

made from skillfully convoluted

branches. This symbolized for me the

skillfully convoluted twists and turns of

Agatha's plots! In the background is a

house based on the description of

Styles from Christie's first detective

novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles.

I also incorporated various other

references to some of her milestone

books: Poirot in a wheelchair (Curtain - his last case); wool and knitting needles (Sleeping

Murder - Miss Marple's last case), a harlequin, a poison bottle, a skull and Tunisian dagger

(The Murder of Roger Ackroyd).’

Documentations confirm Tom’s recollection that the portrait was painted at his suggestion

for W M Collins (Canada) Ltd., and only later used on the dust jacket for The Agatha Christie

Who’s Who, compiled by Randall Toye, created and produced by Jonathan-James Books,

Canada, 1980 without his prior knowledge. We know from those who worked at the Canadian

office of Harper Collins that the painting hung on the wall outside the boardroom throughout

the 1980’s, until the company moved offices and it disappeared. A search in the archives has

proved unsuccessful. We are cautiously hopeful that an article in the Toronto press might

reveal further clues of the whereabouts of this intriguing painting.

Tom Adams wish to re-paint the portrait has to remain on the ‘to do’ list for now. Presently

he is working on a new cover for ‘Dead Man’s Folly’ to be released in 2015 in celebration of

Agatha Christie’s 125th

anniversary.

It might be a still-life, or it might be trompe-l’oeil or something else entirely, certainly it will

be in Adams’ style of grand guignol; half of you is horrified, the other half is laughing.

POSTSCRIPT

Ten years after Tom Adams painted his last cover for Fontana in 1979 ‘Miss Marple’s Final

Cases’ Harper Collins in commissioned Market Research Company James R Adams &

Associates to find reasons for the mysteriously declining sales of Agatha Christie books.

11

After months of questioning large numbers of target groups it became clear that Christie was

still considered the Queen of crime and that there was no dramatic decline of people claiming

to buy paperbacks, researchers started to look at cover designs to try and resolve the persistent

mystery. The groups were consistent in their reactions. The covers often featured blood and

gore. The problem had arisen because the book market had changed with the rise in sales of

horror books and designs for Agatha Christie had been influenced by this trend. The situation

was a classic double turn-off. Christie readers turn away from the more gory aspects of crime;

there might be a whole series of violent deaths in her books, but there is no dwelling on the

details. The readers classed her books as having ‘nice murders’. What happened was that

there was conflict on the covers: Christie said one thing, the picture another. Thus the cover

designs following Tom Adams’ were actually inhibiting sales, not helping them. From

discussions about how respondents buy books, it was found that the cover design was

extremely important. Psychologically, it could be the case, that, in situations of conflict or

mismatch, a pictorial image tends to dominate; pictures are processed more quickly then

words. Or it could be that salience could lead to selection attention of the pictorial

information. (The Bookseller, 1989)

Harper Collins reacted swiftly to these findings, changing the covers yet again to more subtle

and intriguing designs, which reflected the way the author wrote. With the impression of

quality regained, the new style, by a new set of artists was welcomed by the readers and sales

soon improved.

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