I wanted a simple yet basic design with a theme that ran throughout the series for the cover designs.  After a lot of cursing, I decided that the simpler they were the better.   For all of the covers, the format is a plain colour background (usually related to the location name in some form), the title, episode number and author name with a cut down black and white image framed to the right.

In Hainault's case this is the spire of Chichester Cathedral, the base for the City of Haychester in the novel.

For Holborn, the background colour is the pale blue that used to be the tiling pattern colour for the old Piccadilly Line platforms from when different coloured tile patterns were used to identify individual stations for those who were unable to read.

The image is a cut down view of the main entrance of the British Museum whilst the artwork also includes the Underground lines and station symbol from the Underground map for Holborn with the dashed 'limited service' line of the Aldwych Branch reinstated.

Two versions of covers exist for Waterloo.  Both are similar in that they feature the Network Rail 'lion and W' symbol for the station on the right with the dark blue background from the same source.

The Underground lines are represented as well, Waterloo being the most complicated in the series to represent so far!

The second version has the tube lines from the map in their original colours, pale blue for Waterloo & City, brown for Bakerloo, black for Northern and silver grey for Jubilee.

I liked both versions and could not decide on which to go for so here they both are!

Moor Park has a small cut down image of the station itself on the right on a Metropolitan Line dark maroon background with the line complete with junction for the Watford branch in white.

There is a version with the line in darker maroon but I felt this did not work out as well, however if you still wish to see it, click here!

The fifth novel in the series 'Westminster' has an austere silver grey (Jubilee Line) colour with the dominant sight of St Stephen's Tower (aka Big Ben) on the right.

The tube line are in line colours this time but a white line version does exist here which looks a bit too plain and pale.

For the sixth novel, the Victoria theme has included the three tube lines serving the station on a pale blue background with an image of the small clock that can be found at the end of Victoria Street.  This serves a dual purpose representing both the location and the time running out in the story line.

I have retained the standard format for the seventh novel 'Embankment'.  Again the line colours of the station are represented as before however I have now changed the main body colour to a much more pleasant darker green as the original was in my opinion to stark.

The image used is a composite of two, one of the Trafalgar Square Nelson's Column lions and one of the Sphinx that guard Cleopatra's Needle on the Embankment, both within a five minute walk of each other.

Earl's Court presented a few interesting problems for me when coming up with a cover design for it!  The line diagram is probably the second most complex on the entire system (I am dreading the day I have to do one for Bank!!) plus the background colour presented an interesting challenge as well.

I have already used Piccadilly Line blue and District Line green so it had to be Circle Line yellow which doesn't even go to Earl's Court I just realised as I was typing this - Doh!! 

Lewisham turned out to be even more of a challenge than Earl's Court mainly due to the available colours having been used up! 

Originally this was a rather awful lilac colour but I have now changed it to a sort of light Victoria Line blue and reshaped it as it was well out of proportion!!

The composite image consists of part of a Victoria Line leaflet from 1969 plus a Lewisham platform ticket on a 1969 Central Area bus route map, the plaque in Victoria Underground Station ticket hall which was unveiled when the Victoria Line was opened in 1969, a Lewisham railways station 'totem' style sign and New Scotland Yard, specifically the end where Broadway meets Victoria Street, all four of which play a key part in the plotline of the novel.

It is back to red for the tenth novel in the series.  Not much choice really as not only was I rapidly running out of colours but also Epping is solidly Central Line and indeed numerous parts of the plot involve the line.

Note that once again the line diagram is used as a graphic device but with the addition of a dotted line for the long closed Epping to Ongar section.

Although I had considered a change to the house style of cover from episode eleven onwards, in the end I relented and stayed to the traditional style used so far.

Once again the usual familiar adapted line map of the location in question is used with a three image composite alongside.  The background colour is a lighter shade up from Metropolitan Line purple/maroon.

I had decided some time ago that it was time to change the house style of cover art used in the series so far however in the end I stuck to the old style for Liverpool Street and also did one in the same style for Marylebone.

The Bakerloo Line features and the picture is of the tower above Westminster City Hall in Marylebone Road.

This is the first attempt at something a little bit different, this time a stylised roundel for the Marylebone name appears although the general layout is familiar from previous efforts.

Also experimental is the graduated colouring for the text however the image on the right remains the same from the standard version shown above.

Once I had created the new style version above two thoughts occurred to me, one is Transport for London's frowning on roundel logos on non TfL material (so if version two above suddenly disappears one day you know what has happened!)

The other problem is that the proposed episode XIII will not really have much to do with London rendering the Underground map connections a bit superfluous so here the name bar is retained but laid across a stylised XII for the episode number.

I have decided to continue the style set by the Marylebone Version III cover above for the thirteenth episode 'Haychester'.

Different colour of background of course and the images are back to a composite of various different views of Chichester (the City in West Sussex on which Haychester is loosely based) which in this case consists of the Assembly Rooms in North Street, a couple of buses outside the Post Office in West Street and the medieval City Market Cross in the centre.

It is a return to the older style incorporating the tube map layout for the fourteenth novel in the series as the action returns to the City of London after its brief excursion to the Sussex country side in Haychester.  The awfully complicated interchange of Bank/Monument with its six different lines (Central, Circle, District, DLR, Northern and Waterloo & City) are shown with the montage being one of the distinctive 'Bank Station' signs over the entrance, the Threadneedle Street sign and the main entrance to the Bank of England.

The background colour was chosen as it reminded me of the traditional old colour green that says to me money....

A simple admittedly fairly plain design with a stark off white background to contrast with the blood red Central Line section where Leytonstone can be found which reflects the equally stark nature of some key events in the novel.  Just a single photograph this time of the main east entrance to Leytonstone Underground Station which is also the setting for another key event in the story line.

Another simple design that gets its origins from the design for Waterloo above using the Network Rail logo for the mainline railway station which along with the bridge from which it takes its name features notably in a couple of scenes in the novel.