Inner Circle

Inner Circle was deliberately published on Jerzy Peterkiewicz's 50th birthday, numerology being one of his many eccentricities. It had an unusual triptych structure with three parts, Surface, Underground and Sky, each repeated three times. The Guardian nominated it book of the month, and then as one of the books of the year for 1966. It was a futuristic vision of a hopelessly overcrowded Britain, without greenery. Much later, in 1988, this novel was published in Poland when Peterkiewicz was no longer blacklisted.


Like Peterkiewicz, F.N. Souza the illustrator, was an immigrant to England, who made a name for himself in London in the 1950s.
The narrative of Inner Circle, which navigates the past, present and future, seems to draw parallels with the seamless comingling of reality and fantasy in Souza's art. It may have been for this reason, perhaps, that Souza agreed to design the jacket for this volume, and also to contribute twenty-seven drawings relating to the text, including an illustration of the author's dedication on the last page. Each of Souza's drawings, including several intricately cross-hatched figurative works, has been given a full-page in the book.