Would you like these books on your shelves?

Penguin has launched a new design for the Penguin English Library. The press blurb says, ‘Each cover is a crafted gem, they’ll look and feel lovely in your hands.’ And they do. Steal into a bookshop in the next couple of days and hold one. The covers are individual and relevant to the book — Far From the Madding Crowd has a symmetrical series of bees set against a honeyed background — and the paper, though very thin, has a smooth lacquer that makes your fingers slide over the pages.

The problem is the spines. The blurb says: ‘with a distinctive evolution of the famous Penguin orange spines they’ll striking on your shelves.’ They certainly will. The arrival of the first batch of books has set tongues wagging in the office. All agree that the spines resemble a Paul Smith colour scheme, but not everyone thinks that is necessarily a Good Thing.