Andrew Kay is brought to book and is now feeling like a traitor

Aged 56 and I feel like a traitor. Not that I am unhappy, far from it, I don’t think that I have ever been happier than I am right now. And being 56 doesn’t worry me unduly. I rather like it. Much of my happiness, if not all of it, comes from the presence in my life of one Mr R. Mr R the husband, six foot five of loveliness has made the past three years fly by with almost alarming speed.

“I loved books and I loved publishing, but the experience left a bad taste in my mouth”

So why am I feeling like a traitor? Let me explain. It’s almost 20 years since I was unceremonioulsy made redundant by the huge publishing company I worked for as art director in London. I knew shortly after joining them from a smaller but far more honourable firm that I had made a big, cash influenced mistake. A whopper! But what can you do when someone dangles double your salary in front of you and a sports car to boot (actually the sports car had no boot, that was where the engine was and the bit where I thought the engine would be was only big enough to store the Targa Top roof should you take it off)?

I loved most of the people in the new job but there were a handful who I would happily have sent to Hell in a handcart. Anyway, things didn’t work out, it seemed that the ethos there was that art directors did not need to read the books before designing the covers, something that I had always held to be true. So, after 15 years designing books and book covers I was out, sat in a café in the Fulham Road with a bin liner of stuff and a large coffee.

It was a sad time; I loved books, I loved publishing, but the experience left a bad taste in my mouth, one that I have since got rid of by eating a lot of food and then writing about it.

Now I feel like a traitor, a traitor because I love the new Kindle that Mr R has given me for my birthday. It’s not a book, it doesn’t look as lovely as a real book, but my god – it works so well! Within five minutes of turning it on I had purchased Benson At Sixty by Michael Carson and Perfect People by Peter James.

In my heart I still love proper, printed books – but right now I love my new Kindle and I love Mr R.