I graduated in graphic design from Coventry (Lanchester) Polytechnic in 1985, and while there bought six Peter Cheyney 1960s Fontana paperbacks, from a used bookshop, purely because I loved the covers. I moved back to London and the books sat on a shelf for a while, until I noticed that they were published by my then employers, Collins. I started reading them and not only enjoyed the stories greatly, but found that many were set in the streets around where I was working in Mayfair and Soho. I realised that the man himself would have visited my offices some three decades before, and so began an interest that has resulted in a collection of hundreds of books (in a number of languages), magazines, games and contracts, which in turn has led to this site.

I am still a designer and also teach, and currently live in Newcastle upom Tyne with my very indulgent family.

The picture features me in a photo shoot for a 1998 James Hadley Chase cover for Corgi Books (where I worked as a designer in the 1990s and therefore made for a cheap model)

contact: Adrian Sensicle