LOCAL designer Lyn Davies says he was ‘delighted’ to be asked to design the cover for Zelensky: A Biography, the first biography in English of the Ukrainian president.
A resident of Frome since moving here 18 years ago to be the senior designer for Butler & Tanner’s Design Section, Lyn says, “I’ve designed hundreds of covers over the years but none has been as culturally and historically significant as this one about Zelensky.”
While at Butler & Tanner, Lyn worked for well-known publishing clients including BBC Books, Hodder Headline and Methuen.
He left Butler & Tanner in 2007 to set up his own design company, Lyn Davies Design (www.lyndaviesdesignfolio.com), and has since branched out into a number of other areas, including work for charities like the Gurkha Welfare Trust and the Royal Hospital Chelsea, as well as designing art gallery catalogues and brochures, and various high-profile souvenir programmes for national celebrations such as those for the Queen’s 90th birthday Patron’s Lunch, Waterloo 200 and Shakespeare 400.
However, his main passion is still designing books, having started his career at Cambridge University Press, the oldest university press in the world. And as someone with a lifelong interest in history he says, “It’s an honour to be involved, even in this small way, in sharing Zelensky’s remarkable story.”
The book’s synopsis says, “Three years after the political novice Volodymyr Zelensky was elected to Ukraine’s highest office, he found himself catapulted into the role of war-time leader. The former comedian has become the public face of his country’s courageous and bloody struggle against a brutal invasion.
“Born to Jewish parents in central Ukraine, Zelensky campaigned for the presidency in the 2019 election on the promise to restore trust in politics. After his landslide victory, he told jubilant supporters ‘I will never let you down.’ Little did he know that he would be called upon to serve his people in the most demanding circumstances imaginable, fighting for the very survival of his country in the worst war on European soil since 1945.
“Zelensky’s leadership in the face of Russia’s aggression is an inspiration to everyone who stands opposed to the appalling violence being unleashed on Ukraine. This book tells his astonishing story.”
Zelensky: A Biography is now available to purchase.
Picture: Lyn Davies, with a copy of Zelensky – A Biography.
