The cover that never was
The US publishers, The Penguin Press, came up with this design for the book cover. I really like this concept – I think it neatly encapsulates the core theme of The Knowledge about how you can learn to do and build essential things to support yourself, if you ever needed to. The graphic illustrates the progression from the most basic materials of sticks and stones, through to spinning gathered fibres into your own ropes, and reinventing the battery or constructing a wind turbine from scavenged components. But when The Penguin Press team saw the UK cover from Bodley Head they decided they preferred the simplicity and elegance of the design (and to be honest, I agree too) and also adopted it for their publication. So unfortunately this imaginative composition will never see the light of day, but it does mean that The Knowledge is published across the English-speaking world with exactly the same title and front cover – something that rarely happens.
