Above, mid-century design in the form of Panther Books’ Toff series by British author John Creasey. These covers from 1964 and 1965 combine photo-illustrations with beautiful line-based graphic design to excellent effect. The Toff is the nickname of a character named Richard Rollinson, the classic gentleman sleuth. Creasey published more than fifty Toff novels between 1938 and 1977, and more than six hundred books total under his name and twenty eight pseudonyms. We haven’t read any, and the volume of output makes us question whether his books can be of high quality, but we may try the Toff anyway. Those upper class English gents are so hard to resist.
