As the 'beautiful book' comes back into vogue, Martin Salisbury delves into the history of the illustrated book jacket, tracing its development across the 20th century through some of the most iconic designs of the era.

Martin Salisbury has selected over fifty of the artists and illustrators who were active in the period 1920-1970 in the UK and USA, as well as others such as Tove Jansson and Celestino Piatti, and discusses their life and work. A selection of dust jackets - both known and too long forgotten - for each artist reveals how far the book as an artefact had travelled from the days of the plain wrapper in the nineteenth century.