Nick Bantock (born 14 July 1949) is a British artist and author based in Saltspring Island, British Columbia, known for his series, The Griffin and Sabine Trilogy. His books are published by Raincoast Books in Canada and Chronicle Books in the United States, and are known for their elaborate designs featuring faux postage stamps, handwritten documents, passports, postcards and other ephemera.
Career
Bantock attended schools in the northeast suburbs of London, and later an art college in Maidstone, Kent. He began a career as a freelance artist at the age of 23, producing 300 book covers in the ensuing 16 years. In 1988 he moved to Vancouver, and soon after to the nearby Bowen Island, where he had the idea that became the Griffin and Sabine series.[1][2]
In 1993, he won the Bill Duthie Bookseller's Choice Award for Sabine's Notebook.
In 2006, he adapted the Griffin and Sabine series into a play, also called "Griffin and Sabine", which premiered in Vancouver at the Granville Island Stage and ran from 5 October – 4 November 2006.
In 2007, he resumed painting full-time, and opened a studio-gallery, 'The Forgetting Room', on Saltspring Island. Between 2007 and 2010, Bantock was one of the twelve committee members responsible for selecting Canada's postage stamps.
