Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 28, 1993 TAG: 9301270156
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MEG SULLIVAN LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Long
POPULARITY OF HIS BOOKS TAKES ARTIST BY SURPRISE
It's hard to imagine a less likely instigator of a literary sensation than Nick Bantock.By his own admission, the native Londoner is a "lousy" speller whose English teacher dismissed him at 15 as hopeless. In the intervening 20 years, he picked up a pen "only to fill out forms."
But the author of "Griffin & Sabine," released in 1991, and "Sabine's Notebook," released in 1992, found himself in the enviable position of having his first two books end up as two national best sellers.
Last week, "Griffin & Sabine," which chronicles the romance of an artist and his secret admirer through postcards and letters, logged its 20th week on The New York Times best sellers list. The book ranked third in the nation, just one step ahead of Bantock's second book, "Sabine's Notebook" (Chronicle Books; $17.95), a continuation of the "epistolary romance" that marked its 14th week on the list.
Bantock credits the saga's success to its charming story, which revolves around the possibility that the London painter's admirer may not exist. Is she a figment of his imagination or the reverse? Is she a witch or is he crazy?
Griffin, an angst-ridden painter, usually types his letters - complete with misspellings. Sabine, a mystical figure with a penchant for omnipotence, communicates in graceful calligraphy. The envelopes and cards also offer a window into each character, who is supposed to decorate them. Sabine's are beautiful and dream-like while Griffin's often have a violent undercurrent such as a postcard that shows a fish biting a man's nose.
"You can look at it as a love story or a psychological thriller," he explained in a recent interview in Beverly Hills. "That's why it works. There are so many options."
But the book's format also is key, according to Annie Barrows, Chronicle's managing editor. Bantock's books feature real envelopes stuffed by hand at the Asian printer that produced them. They even bare stamps and cancellation marks.
It is part of a trend toward interactive books that has seen the recent introduction of pop-up illustrations and recording in adult books.
"It's a piece of art you get to participate in," Barrows said. "That's unusual, and, for most people, that's very pleasurable."
Aside from an opportunity to partake of the tale's literal unfolding, the missives offer a guilty pleasure.
"It's voyeurism," Barrows said. "People get to read other people's mail."
Bantock's picture books, neither of which is more than 50 pages long, share another attractive feature with "The Jolly Postman" and other children's books.
"We're talking about something that can be read in an hour," he said, noting that this appeals to "people who think they don't have time to sit down and read a novel."
The books hold hidden messages, visual puns and dark humor that entice some people to return repeatedly to them, he said.
Whatever the reasons for his success, Bantock, a thin, polite man who lives with his wife and three children on a remote island near Vancouver, British Columbia, said he is surprised by it.
Trained as an artist in England, he worked briefly in one of the legalized betting shops in London before he fell into illustrating book covers. He had devoted 15 years to the field, creating more than 300 book covers, when he hit on the idea for the Griffin books.
"I didn't dream I'd be writing the final book," he said. "I thought they'd bring in a writer as collaborator."
But when Chronicle put Bantock in the writer's seat, he didn't have to look far for inspiration. He said both characters embody different sides of his own character.
"People who know me say they recognize me" in the book, he said.
He chose the name of Griffin as protagonist because it means a mythical beast with a body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle.
"The name is a way of telling people straight away, `Here is a person who is in transition - half one thing and half the other.' "
He hit on Sabine for the being who causes Griffin to question his life because he considered the name to be "very, very strong." It was only after he began to assemble the book that he realized how apt the name was. A French stamp that he ended up affixing to a pivotal card from Sabine was based on a portrait by the 18th-century French artist Jacques-Louis David. Named "Sabine," it showed a woman positioned between Sabine and Roman forces in classical mythology.
"She's keeping them from fighting," Bantock said. "She's a symbol of unity, and, if I had to pick a word, one word about the trilogy, it would be unity."
These appear to be the details that captivate his fans, he said. Bantock said he receives about 30 letters a week from fans and regularly corresponds with "five or six" of them.
"We were expecting a cult following," Barrows said, "but it's gone beyond that."
The publisher, initially planning to print just 10,000 copies of "Griffin & Sabine," has printed 330,000 copies of the book and 300,000 copies of its sequel.
Now the pressure is on to see whether Bantock's third book in the trilogy - "The Golden Mean" - can match expectations. It is scheduled to be released in September.
"There's a degree of pressure to milk the success," the author admitted.
He promised to move on after the tale's last installment. Even so, the world will not have seen the end of Griffin and Sabine for a long while. Last summer, Warner Bros. bought the movie rights for the story.
And at least until September, certain questions remain. Just who is Sabine? "All I can say," he said, "is that she's the one he needs the most."