We’re pleased to announce that British artist Nom Kinnear King will illustrate Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë.
This will be Nom’s first foray into fine press, and it arrives at a moment that feels well suited to her practice. There’s a natural alignment between her work and the tone of the novel. Her images don’t try to resolve what Brontë leaves open. They sit in that same space of tension and ambiguity. There’s a stillness that draws you in slowly, there’s atmosphere with restraint, they hold back just enough, which allows the psychological tension of the novel to come through without being overstated.
Rather than interpreting the text too literally, Nom’s approach complements it. Her artwork reflects Jane’s interior world and the unease that runs beneath even the quieter moments of the book. Her practice is grounded in atmosphere. There’s a quietness to it, but also a sense that something is always just out of view. Figures feel observed, but not fully revealed. That restraint lends itself to Jane Eyre, where so much of the story lives beneath the surface of what is said.
For this edition, Nom will be creating sixteen original oil paintings. These will form the anchor of the visual experience. In adition to them will be thirty-eight chapter illustrations, designed to be printed letterpress. The lettered state will also include novel a series of watercolour and pencil portraits, ephemera to the novel, extending the body of work into something more intimate and further embed the reader into Jane’s world as an artist herself.
As a first project for the press, this edition sets a direction for how we want to approach illustration. Not as something applied to a text, but as something developed alongside it. Taken together, the illustrations are not just decoration, rather, they are part of the reading experience itself. They slow the pace and give space for the atmosphere of the novel to build and settle.
About Nom Kinnear King
Nom grew up in Norfolk, England, where her fascination with storytelling and visual imagery began early, through drawing, folklore, and film. She studied at Norwich School of Art, where she honed a style that blends nostalgic melancholy with magical realism. Her work has since been shown across the UK and internationally, held in private collections and praised for its deeply emotive, feminine strength.
We’re glad to be working with Nom on this project and will share further details, including pre-order information, in due course.