Nick Bantock (born 14 July 1949) is a British artist and author based in Saltspring Island,

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

, known for his series, ''

The Griffin and Sabine Trilogy ''The Griffin and Sabine Saga'' is a series of bestselling epistolary novels written by Nick Bantock. The first three novels in the series, ''Griffin and Sabine'', '' Sabine's Notebook'' and '' The Golden Mean'', form the original ''Griffin and ...

''. His books are published by

Raincoast Books Raincoast Books is a Canadian book distribution and wholesale company. Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Raincoast was founded by Mark Stanton and Allan MacDougall in 1979 as a consignment wholesaler that shared overhead, warehouse space and ...

in Canada and Chronicle Books in the United States, and are known for their elaborate designs featuring ''faux'' postage stamps, handwritten documents, passports, postcards and other ephemera.

Career

Bantock attended schools in the northeast suburbs of

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, and later an art college in Maidstone,

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. He began a career as a freelance artist at the age of 23, producing 300 book covers in the ensuing 16 years. In 1988 he moved to

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

, and soon after to the nearby Bowen Island, where he had the idea that became the Griffin and Sabine series.Nick Bantock Interview with Don Swaim
1992 In 1993, he won the Bill Duthie Bookseller's Choice Award for ''Sabine's Notebook.'' In 2006, he adapted the Griffin and Sabine series into a play, also called "Griffin and Sabine", which premiered in Vancouver at the Granville Island Stage and ran from 5 October – 4 November 2006. In 2007, he resumed painting full-time, and opened a studio-gallery, 'The Forgetting Room', on Saltspring Island. Between 2007 and 2010, Bantock was one of the twelve committee members responsible for selecting Canada's postage stamps.

Bibliography

* The Griffin and Sabine Saga ** ''

'' *** '' Griffin and Sabine: An Extraordinary Correspondence'' (1991) *** ''Sabine's Notebook: In Which the Extraordinary Correspondence of Griffin and Sabine Continues'' (1992) *** ''The Golden Mean: In Which the Extraordinary Correspondence of Griffin and Sabine Concludes'' (1993) ** ''The Morning Star Trilogy'' *** ''The Gryphon: In Which the Extraordinary Correspondence of Griffin and Sabine is Rediscovered'' (2001) *** ''Alexandria: In Which the Extraordinary Correspondence of Griffin and Sabine Unfolds'' (2002) *** ''The Morning Star: In Which the Extraordinary Correspondence of Griffin and Sabine is Illuminated'' (2003) ** ''The Pharos Gate: Griffin and Sabine's Lost Correspondence'' (2016) * ''The Missing Nose Flute and Other Mysteries of Life'' (1991) - postcard book * ''The Egyptian Jukebox'' (1993) * ''Averse to Beasts'' (1994) * ''The Venetian's Wife'' (1996) * ''Paris Out of Hand'' (1996) - with Karen Elizabeth Gordon and Barbara Hodgson * ''Capolan ArtBox'' (1997) * ''The Forgetting Room'' (1997) * ''The Museum at Purgatory'' (1999) * ''The Artful Dodger: Images and Reflections'' (2000) - a visual autobiography, and retrospective * ''Urgent 2nd Class: Creating Curious Collage, Dubious Documents, and Other Art from Ephemera'' (2004) * ''Windflower'' (2006) - with

Edoardo Ponti Edoardo Ponti (born 6 January 1973) is an Italian director. He is the younger son of actress Sophia Loren and producer Carlo Ponti Sr. and the brother of conductor Carlo Ponti Jr. Early life Ponti was born on 6 January 1973 in Geneva, Swit ...

* ''

The Canterbury Tales ''The Canterbury Tales'' ( enm, Tales of Caunterbury) is a collection of twenty-four stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. It is widely regarded as Chaucer's ''Masterpiece, ...

'' (2010) - illustrations only, retold by Peter Ackroyd * ''The Trickster's Hat: A Mischievous Apprenticeship in Creativity'' (2014) * ''Dubious Documents'' (2018) * ''The Archeo: Personal Archetype Cards'' (2021)

Popup books

* ''There Was An Old Lady'' (1990) * ''Wings'' (1990) * ''Jabberwocky'' (1991) * ''Runners, Sliders, Bouncers, Climbers'' (1992) * ''Solomon Grundy'' (1992) * ''The Walrus and the Carpenter'' (1992) * ''Kubla Khan'' (1993) * ''Robin Hood'' (1993) * ''My Foolish Heart: A Pop-Up Book of Love'' (2017)

References

External links

NickBantock.com
- Official site
Nick Bantock Podcasts WindflowerNick Bantock Appreciation group on Facebook The Venetian for iPad
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bantock, Nick Living people English illustrators 20th-century English novelists 21st-century English novelists 1949 births English male novelists 20th-century English male writers 21st-century English male writers