It became a runaway success

This is the HQ of Sort Of Books.

A wide view of the office of Sort Of Books. On the left, Wooster the English Setter lies asleep and Mark Ellingham studies papers at his desk. To the right, at a bay window overlooking the street, Nat Jansz engages with her computer.

Not far from here is Hampstead Heath. One day in 2023 Mark was walking Wooster, his English Setter and I was walking Peanut, my schnauzer.

Somewhere between Kenwood and Parliament Hill, Mark mentioned in passing that one of the writers published by his small press had recently won the Booker Prize.

Not a small piece of news – but I had somehow missed it.

The winner in question was Shehan Karunatilaka.

Mark said that Shehan would soon be flying to London to collect the award. He’d be visiting Sort Of Books HQ.

Sort Of Books is Natania Jansz and Mark Ellingham. They founded it together, in 2000, just after selling Rough Guides to Penguin.

I asked if I could come and make pictures at the office when Shehan was there – a kind of artist in residence for the day.

And that’s how I ended up, some weeks later, in the office Mark shares with Nat in their home.

I walked around the room, taking it all in while they worked. Behind Nat’s chair, a large printer. Above the printer, a framed poster of Tove Jansson – one of Sort Of’s most beloved authors.

photo of the poster above the printer.

On a shelf, a 1999 Newcomer of the Year award from the British Book Awards.

Photo of the award.

One friend’s book started the whole Sort Of adventure: Driving Over Lemons by Chris Stewart. It became a runaway success. Nat and Mark found themselves running a whole new publishing business.

As well as taking photos, I made quick drawings. This seems to create a kind of muscle-memory that comes in useful later:

Drawing, with schnauzer Peanut on my lap.

(I brought along my schnauzer, Peanut.)

Later, at home, I would combine the reference photos into a collage.

And refer to the some of those to make further drawings. Some on paper:

Mark Ellingham of Sort Of Books in his office in a bright orange shirt, swivelling on a chair, laughing at something in his hand; bookshelves behind him; a big window with blinds on the left; a patterned rug in the foreground; Wooster the English Setter asleep in the corner.

Others, like the one at the top of this page, are done on my iPad using the amazing Procreate app.

Here’s one of the iPad pictures, printed on museum-quality paper. I’m quite pleased.

There is one more thing worth saying.

In 2009, I wrote a book about tackling climate change by making all my own clothes – right down to a pair of Y-fronts crocheted from nettle fibre (I know!).

In keeping with that book’s DIY ethos, I hand-bound the first twenty copies in fabric from my old shirts. A friend in eco publishing, Maddie Harland at Permanent Publications, saw one and republished it as Through The Eye Of A Needle.

Another friend sent a copy on to Profile Books, where Mark also works as an editor. Mark bought the rights and republished it as Sew Your Own.

So Mark is not just one of the publishers in this show. He is one of my publishers. He still has one of my 20 hand-stitched originals.

***

Saying goodbye

Saying goodbye. Nat, left, and schnauzer Peanut.

Nat, me and Peanut.

The main picture on this page is one of the portraits in Contain Multitudes, my show at Burgh House, Hampstead, 18-23 August 2026.

First published: 15 September 2023
Last updated: 11 August 2026