What A Carve Up!: Existing Covers and what they tell me

What A Carve Up! by Jonathan Coe is the other book that we have the option of creating a new cover for. 

History of the book & the author

'What A Carve Up!' was written by Jonathan Coe, and is a "satirical" novel. This means that it's written in a way that ridicules a certain topic and tries to convince the reader into changing their opinion of it. Typically, people that write satirical novels put across their own opinions on how the topic their talking about can be improved. link

Around the time Jonathan decided to write another book, the film "What A Carve Up" was rerun. As it was one of his favourite films from when he was younger, he watched it and looked into it further. The film is of the comedy/horror genre, and follows a family that are gathered inside of a old, creepy house during a thunderstorm. They're there for the reading of a will, and whilst its happening a series of mysterious murders start to occur. Coe then decided that as well as just using the title of the film, he could base his book around a family too, and use them as a metaphor for Britain and those in charge of different aspects (e.g. politics, finance, culture etc). This is what his book "What A Carve Up!" or "The Winshaw Legacy" is about. It's based in 1980's Britain under the ruling of the conservative government i.e Margaret Thatcher. 

Example 1

This is the current version of the 'What A Carve Up!' cover. Like the 'The Outsiders' covers I analysed, the authors name is once again bigger than the title of the book.

The imagery that has been featured has a very old/vintage/50's-60's feel, and looks like it's cut out from an old black & white film. The image of the girl looks like she is undressing and she appears to be from and in a wealthy surroundings. Her hair is neatly styled and the bed she is standing over is large and appears carefully crafted out of wood. The sheets look clean and the purple colour of the background, and the general purple tone of the imagery hints towards a royal/wealthy feel - purple has these connotations.

Example 2

This is a cover for the books alternative name 'The Winshaw Legacy'. The main things that give me a clue towards the content of this book are the image of the castle style house, the font that has been chosen for the text and the way the text has been framed - they all suggest the idea of wealth. The castle itself is not something that the everyday, average person will live in and the fact that we can see inside tells us the contents and the people of this castle are significant to the story. If the roof was on and we could not see inside, there would be more clues towards the castle itself being specific (i.e. its "haunted", no one knows what's inside etc). The car parked outside the castle is rather fancy, and further confirms that someone lives inside and we are going to get to know them.

The two fonts chosen for the title of the book are in the hollywood. They both have a sense of wealth, royalty and fame, and remind me of old cinema signs.

To me this also hints towards wealth, and as a whole, power. I'd assume from these signs on the cover that the people that live inside this castle have a lot of power and control. Another assumption I'd make is that they lived in the UK - Castles are more relevant to the UK compared to somewhere like America.