Collected here in a stunning box set, these ten books - novels, memoirs and one very unusual biography - that make up our Matchbook Classics' series, a beautifully redesigned collection of some of the best loved titles on our backlist.



In the mid-twentieth century, the matchbox industry was booming. Companies had to stand out, so they began commissioning designers and illustrators to create works of graphic art for their labels. Despite its limitations, the tiny canvas did not inhibit artists' imaginations: foxes skipping through Polish forests, celebrations of Russia's space race successes and orchards coming into blossom. These micro-masterpieces serve as the inspiration for the 4th Estate Matchbook Classics series.

The ten books - novels, memoirs and one very unusual biography - are some of the best loved and most admired that 4th Estate has published. Revolutions, mental illness, a vicarage upbringing, families caught in civil war, soldiers in Vietnam and a man who can only communicate by blinking his left eyelid: these books display a full range of the human experience and thrillingly bring it to life. Each can be considered one of the great books of our time, as unique as the matchbox that inspired its cover.



Contains:




Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard


The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby


Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald


The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen


A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel


Stuart: A Life Backwards by Alexander Masters


Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie


The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien


The Shipping News by Annie Proulx


Bad Blood by Lorna Sage