6 Book Covers
Derek Roberts is an artist working with traditional paints, who lives in the Eastern part of London, England. His works are created as canvases, then photographed and uploaded as book covers.
Below is a full list of books for which Derek has created the cover illustration:-
Counterfactual Essays & Creative Writing Advice
How To Write Alternate History is a book looking at how to write within the genre. It is illustrated throughout with examples, designed to inspire and open the writer up to exploring similar ideas for their own stories.
Grey Wolf's articles on how to write alternate history include what to look out for, considerations to bear in mind, and ideas for progression. The articles cover a wide range of related subjects, such as creating small but noticeable changes in things like the brand names which are popular, the activities which are to be found at the local pub, or the names of sports teams.
Developing Points of Departure (Divergence) and realistic alternatives in areas such as music, sport and dynastic marriages are also covered.
The cover for "How To Write Alternate History" is titled "Tsar Michael The Great".
Alternate History & Steampunk
Never The Dawn takes place in an alternate world where the Earth is divided up between several competing empires. Within one of these, Albion, strange events are beginning to manifest themselves, not least on the battlefront in West Africa. It slowly emerges that this is just a part of a larger pattern, and various agencies and chivalric orders begin the quest to get to the bottom of things.
Never The Dawn sees the Empire of Albion confront the mystery of the Lights in West Africa, and the mysterious and sinister Order of the Serpent which lurks in the shadows.
The cover for Never The is a montage of scenes from the novel, including the Lights attacking the tanks of Albion, an airship and a bi-plane, in an African setting.
Alternate HIstory
Ten Naval Battles tells the story of an alternate history from the mid 18th century to the mid 19th century through the eyes of a historian of that world writing about the ten most decisive naval battles of this period.
Read about the Egyptians defeating the French, events in the North American colonies, and the formation of a federal Germany.
The book also includes the start of Ten Great Leaders with the Duc d'Andorra.
The cover for Ten Naval Battles is titled "The Battle of Kolberg" and depicts an ironclad naval battle between a Russian force, and one flying the flags of both Danzig and a federal Germany.
Alternate History
This book is currently unpublished, but is in the long list for republication
Jason Wolfe awakes in a strange bed in a strange apartment, and finds photographs on the walls appearing to show himself over time as a different person, a Slayer to the Emperor of Albion. He finds a code-locked chamber full of grotesque trophies, his winnings from the tournaments he has been engaged in, and realises that he has somehow switched worlds, into an alternate universe where the person everyone thinks he is, is this Slayer, this gladiatorial type of fellow, who has also risen to become an advisor to the Emperor, and a friend to the imperial family.
The cover for The Slayer was designed to be a montage of scenes from the novel, including the arena, the Slayer, an ornithopter, and an alternate London skyline.
Alternate History & Science Fiction
In an alternate history, decolonisation of the Americas follows a vastly different timeline, and the British royal family remains pre-eminent in world affairs.
Competing with a Bonaparte Byzantium and a French Empire under the Murats, the Saxe-Coburg British fight on an equal footing for recognition and influence.
Follow 1400 years of history, from an alternate 1900 to the galactic empire of 3300AD where humanity inadvertently reawakens a terror that the elder races believed long dead.
The cover for Time of The Darkness harks back to the classic science fiction covers of the 1950s, and aims to give an impression of scenes from the book, rather than to represent a particular scene accurately.
Poetry
Poetry in memory of the author's mother, illustrated with photographs by the author, with a cover from a specially-commissioned in memoriam painting, by Derek Roberts .
Yesterday's Empire is published by Purple Unicorn Media.
With Yesterday's Empire's main theme being that of loss, and the end of an era, the cover depicts this in the defeated form of the emperor, his flags broken, his city in flames behind him, and his crown tossed down upon the ground.