The re-issues were released at the end of January, in order to coincide with Orwell’s date of death 21 January, 1950, giving five of his adorned novels a makeover unlike we’ve seen before. London-based book designer and branding maestro David Pearson was the man for the job and he most certainly has delivered.

Penguin Books and the designer have managed to sum up the spirit and life of each novel, creating bold designs for each of the five that Pearson took under his wing. They say that you should never judge a book by its cover but, whatever, when the covers of classic reads look this good, it’s surprising that fashion bloggers aren’t cooing over them and calling them this seasons ‘in thing’. Well, they should be. These covers are marvelous.

The covers literally speak for themselves; ‘Animal Farm’ hits you hard like the opening titles of a B-Movie or golden age political thriller, then there is '1984', whose cover is subtle yet straight to the point, censoring the title and name of the author with thick black strips and standing out as one of the most striking covers…

...a homage to an artist is played with for cover of ‘Down and Out in Paris and London’ that features Georges Braque-esque cover art and the text book styling for 'Politics And The English Language'.

Last but not least is one of Orwell's greatest achievements 'Homage to Catalonia', whose cover is subtle yet straight to the point, which, like the cover of 'Down and Out in Paris and London', using Picasso-esque line drawings to create figures that are strangely reminiscent of the statues from Easter Island.

I think that is safe to assume that George Orwell would be delighted with the quintet of new covers, we certainly are in the Swide office.

They are available in the shops, now.