EXTRACTS: Illustrators issue 15 © 2016 The Book Palace (96 PAGES in Full edition)

64 Sam Peffer Gary Lovisi unveils the bare knuckle exploits of one of the UK's premier post-war paperback artists. ABOVE: January 1949 and Sam Peffer marries his sweetheart Kitty Barber. Young and good looking, they both would frequently appear as models for Peff's cover art. ABOVE RIGHT: Peff's cover for the first James Bond book, 'Doctor No'. Painted in 1956 for Pan Books , the reaction to this and the other covers, Peff created for Pan , prompted them to offer him an exclusive contract, to ensure that his work would not appear on rival publisher's covers. Sam Peffer, better known as ‘Peff ’, is one of the most admired and fondly remembered paperback cover artists that Britain has ever produced. His work in the 1950s and ‘60s for Pan Books (for whom he contributed no less than 150 covers), as well as for Corgi, Panther, Arrow, Digit and others, have become classic images. Peff ’s art is hallmarked by stunningly realistic images of men and women in the throws of passion, conflict, war, and action. His women are gorgeous—lovely ladies with a touch of class, but sometimes hinting at femme fatale danger—while his men are stalwart heroic types that all men would like to emulate. He used himself and his wife, Kitty, as models on many of his book covers. Peff showed