Twenty-five years after its initial publication, China Miéville's seminal steampunk novel Perdido Street Station is coming to life like never before in The Folio Society's new limited edition release featuring stunningly detailed artwork by Doug Bell. Showcasing Bell's map of New Crobuzon as well as his black-and-white opening chapter illustrations and full-color artwork, The Folio Society's limited edition of Perdido Street Station is now available, and we caught up with Bell in a new Q&A feature to discuss his creative approach to illustrating memorable moments and characters from Miéville's iconic novel!
Thank you for taking the time to answer questions for us, Doug, and congratulations on your amazing artwork for The Folio Society’s limited edition release of China Miéville’s Perdido Street Station, timed to the novel’s 25th anniversary! How did you initially get involved with this exciting celebration of Miéville’s groundbreaking book?
Doug Bell: First of all, thank you all so much for your interest. I got involved with this project through the art directors at Folio Society. I wanted to work with them for a while, and after some time, they found a project in which my work would fit nicely.
Were you a fan of Perdido Street Station before creating the artwork for this new edition of the iconic steampunk novel?
Doug Bell: Perdido Street Station was new to me when the project started. So, I had fresh eyes and an open mind to dive into the material completely without any preconceived images or emotions. It was exciting.
From the attention to detail in every line to the way the colors both complement and contrast each other, your artwork for Perdido Street Station is absolutely stunning. Were you given a lot of creative freedom with your approach to the artwork for this limited edition release?
Doug Bell: Yes, indeed I was given a lot of creative freedom. It was a blessing of a project and everyone allowed me to explore and push my work in ways that enhanced this fantastic tale.
Comprising more than 700 pages, Perdido Street Station is an epic story brimming with memorable characters and unique settings. How did you decide which moments from the steampunk novel to bring to life in your illustrations?
Doug Bell: As far as which moments I wish to bring to life, the book basically spoke to me as I was reading it and rereading it. There are parts that visually rose to the surface as well as characters that I fell in love with and needed to visually create.
In addition to making a binding and map featuring the city of New Crobuzon, you also created eight black-and-white chapter opening illustrations and 12 full-color illustrations. Altogether, how much time did it take you to create the artwork for this Folio Society edition of Perdido Street Station?
Doug Bell: I had four months to create sketches for all the artwork required. Once approved, I had another three months to create final artwork for everything required. Note that at that time I had already had the map created and sent in for approval, being as that was the first map I’d ever illustrated.
Do you have a favorite illustration in particular that you’re excited for readers to experience when they read this version of Perdido Street Station?
Doug Bell: Do I have a favorite illustration? I do not. They’re like my children. I don’t have a favorite. I let them breathe and grow and move onto the printed page hoping for the best. I’ve gotten comfortable over the years with my style and hope others like it as well.
The Folio Society has worked with amazing artists over the years on unique book releases, including Yuko Shimizu, Chris Samnee, Dave McKean, Charles Vess, and the Balbusso twins. What does it mean to you to have your name now added to that list of talented creators?
Doug Bell: To be a part of Folio Society in any small way is a great honor. To be included in a list of artists that I have followed for years is amazing.
Ultimately, what do you hope readers take away from this Folio Society release of Perdido Street Station?
Doug Bell: Ultimately, I hope they enjoy the story and the artwork marriage that has occurred here and that the work that I did in some small way enhances the experience that the author provided.
What advice would you give to aspiring artists who are just getting started?
Doug Bell: Reach out to artists in the field that you admire. Illustrators by and large are a friendly group. They can offer advice on the highs and lows of being in the field. The other advice I would offer is draw, draw, draw.
With the Folio Society's 25th anniversary edition of Perdido Street Station now available, do you have any other projects coming up that you can tease?
Doug Bell: I am finishing up illustrations for Mary Stewart’s book The Crystal Cave, which should come out sometime next year through Centipede Press in the U.S. Then I’ve got a couple of other book projects that, unfortunately, I really can’t talk about just yet.
Thank you very much for your time, Doug!
Doug Bell: Thank you so much. This has been a blast.
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We have additional details and a look at some of Doug Bell's amazing artwork below, and to learn more about The Folio Society's limited edition of Perdido Street Station, visit:
Press Release: (March 17, 2025) The Folio Society, independent publisher of beautifully illustrated hardback books, is partnering with award-winning fantasy and sci-fi author China Miéville for the ultimate edition of his iconic steampunk novel PERDIDO STREET STATION. First published 25 years ago in 2000, PERDIDO STREET STATION blends elements of fantasy, horror and science fiction and was nominated for several awards, winning the Arthur C. Clarke Award and the British Fantasy Award, establishing Miéville as a central figure in the “Weird Fiction” genre. The Folio Society limited edition, with a scant 500 copies available, will include the full text of the first edition, a new afterword by the author, and a map and striking art by award-winning illustrator Doug Bell, who is making his debut with the Folio Society. Bell joins an impressive array of artists who have illustrated books for the Folio Society, including Yuko Shimizu, Chris Samnee, Dave McKean, Charles Vess, and the Balbusso twins.
Crafted with China Miéville’s close involvement, the 707-page PERDIDO STREET STATION Limited Edition from the Folio Society will feature a limitation page signed by the author and artist, printed map endpapers, iridescent foiling, a presentation box in the rough shape of a moth, and a black ribbon marker. Illustrator Doug Bell has contributed a binding and map revealing the layout of the city of New Crobuzon, as well as 8 black and white integrated chapter opening illustrations and 12 full-colour illustrations. The book will be bound in screen-printed and blocked canvas cloth, printed in black and metallic copper ink, and presented in a clamshell covered in paper which has been silver cold-foiled, printed, laminated and over-blocked in translucent foil with a design by the artist. In addition to Miéville’s novel, the Folio Society publishes seminal science fiction and fantasy novels by Margaret Atwood (The Handmaid’s Tale), Malorie Blackman (Noughts and Crosses), Octavia Butler (Kindred), Frank Herbert (Dune), Kazuo Ishiguro (The Buried Giant), Cormac McCarthy (The Road), Haruki Murakami (The Wind Up Bird Chronicles), and Kurt Vonnegut (Cat’s Cradle).
“Having encountered my first Folio Society edition as a child and been blown away by the beauty and mystery of the text, It has been a great honour to work with the Society on one of my own books,” said author China Miéville. “I’m still astonished that something I wrote will be part of this beautiful oeuvre, and grateful to everyone at the Society for making the whole process such a pleasure.”
A fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, Miéville is the only author to have won the Arthur C. Clarke three times. His novels include The City & The City and Embassytown, and his writing has been compared with the works of Franz Kafka, George Orwell and Philip K. Dick. Along with Keanu Reeves, Miéville is the co-writer of The Book of Elsewhere and was also the writer of an acclaimed run on DC Comics’ Dial H series.
“Artist Doug Bell and author China Miéville are a match made in heaven,” said James Rose, The Folio Society’s Head of Editorial. “Doug's immersive scratchboard-effect illustrations vividly realise the grimy world of New Crobuzon and its mix of steampunk, monsters and magic. With a host of characters as intricate as the city itself, PERDIDO STREET STATION is the ultimate steampunk novel and one that holds the reader gripped from its opening pages to its dramatic conclusion. No wonder it won the Arthur C. Clarke award and continues to hold the baton for Weird literature.”
In the sprawling, chaotic city of New Crobuzon, where magic and machinery intertwine, a dangerous experiment unleashes a nightmare that threatens to consume everything. Isaac, a rogue scientist, unwittingly sets a monstrous force loose and must rally an unlikely band of outcasts to confront it. As the city teeters on the brink of destruction, the battle delves into the darkest corners of human ambition and the eerie beauty of the bizarre. China Miéville’s PERDIDO STREET STATION is a spellbinding journey into a world teeming with grotesque wonders, savage horrors, and the relentless pulse of revolution.
Here’s what critics are saying about PERDIDO STREET STATION:
“A well-written, authentically engrossing adventure story, exuberantly full of hocus-pocus . . . Miéville does not disappoint.”—The Daily Telegraph
“A work of exhaustive inventiveness . . . superlative fantasy”—Time Out
“This is an astonishing novel, guaranteed to astound and enthral the most jaded palate. It is exhilarating, sometimes very moving, occasionally shocking, always humane and thought-provoking. Its exuberant and unflagging inventiveness, as well as the strong narrative, keep up interest throughout.”—Times Literary Supplement
“For once, comparisons with Gormenghast are justified.”—The Guardian
“The premise is wittily worked out and extends to every detail of life ... Miéville's inventiveness and precision are awesome.”—The Independent
“Miéville is gifted with an incomparable visionary imagination.”—Ursula K. LeGuin
“A massive and gorgeously detailed parallel-world fantasy.”—Michael Moorcock, The Spectator
PERDIDO STREET STATION will be published by the Folio Society on March 18, 2025 at 4pm UK time (12pm EDT, 9am PDT), timed to the 25th anniversary of its original publication.
https://www.foliosociety.com/perdido-street-station-limited-edition.html
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
China Miéville is a New York Times-bestselling author known for blending fantasy, horror, and science fiction in novels like Perdido Street Station, The Scar, and Iron Council. A fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, Miéville has won the Arthur C. Clarke, World Fantasy, Hugo, and British Science Fiction Awards. He has also been shortlisted for the Folio Prize. Formerly an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Warwick University, he’s also held roles at Birkbeck and Roosevelt University. Miéville is a founding editor of Salvage and was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for fiction in 2018.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Doug Bell is an award-winning illustrator celebrated for his intricate line work and mastery of light and shadow. Using techniques like woodcut, scratchboard, and engraving, Bell creates images that bridge viewers to his subjects with depth and emotion. His work, recognised by institutions such as Communication Arts, the Society of Illustrators, Spectrum Fantastic Art, and American Illustration, reflects a commitment to capturing both form and feeling. Bell’s line-driven storytelling allows him to continually find new perspectives, bringing a sense of magic and precision to each stroke and making his work distinctive in commercial and fine art.
ABOUT THE FOLIO SOCIETY
Folio is an employee-owned, independent publisher that has thrilled and delighted a band of dedicated readers across the globe since 1947. Today, from our workspace in the heart of London’s vibrant Shad Thames, Folio continues that tradition by crafting exquisite, illustrated books.
Folio publishes many of the greatest names in publishing, in editions which reflect an extraordinary commitment to the craft of book-making and design. Folio’s award-winning books include Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, George R. R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones, Madeline Miller’s The Song of Achilles, Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, and Diana Wynne Jones’s Howl’s Moving Castle.
Proudly independent for over 75 years, in 2021 The Folio Society became an Employee Ownership Trust. Folio’s team of editors, designers and artisans will do whatever it takes to give each title everything it deserves, from outstanding intellectual firepower to extraordinary craftsmanship.
Available exclusively from Folio through www.foliosociety.com
Raised on a steady diet of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps books and Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Derek has been fascinated with fear since he first saw ForeverWare being used on an episode of Eerie, Indiana.
When he’s not writing about horror as the Senior News Reporter for Daily Dead, Derek can be found daydreaming about the Santa Carla Boardwalk from The Lost Boys or reading Stephen King and Brian Keene novels.
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