Cardiff student designs cover for Bill Bryson bestseller

A student has been shortlisted for a design award from a top publisher for a Bill Bryson bestseller.

Emily Roach from Cardiff is among 30 students shortlisted for the Penguin Random House Design Award competition, from more than 2,000 entries.

The 21-year-old is the only person from Wales to make the final, with her cover of A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson.

Ms Roach said it was a "privilege" and "an honour".

The competition was launched in 2007 to give aspiring student designers the experience of working on real cover design briefs.

Ms Roach, who is studying illustration at the University of South Wales, said she had a "nothing ventured, nothing gained" mindset when her lecturers suggested she enter.

"The design began like all my things do," she said.

"Like a pen drawing on an old envelope, which is how I love to work."

One of her biggest challenges was condensing the huge range of topics that Bill Bryson explores in his scientific novel, into one visual image.

"The word that kept coming to me was 'unpacked'.

"There's so much knowledge in this book waiting to be unpacked, and I thought I'd use a plastic model kit as a metaphor for the knowledge inside the book.

"The information within the book itself then acts as a 'guide' to understanding the world around us, embodied by the plastic figures within the sprue.

"It took me maybe five or six weeks because I was working on it in uni with my lecturers, but just four or five hours sitting down and drawing it."

Ms Roach said the competition had given her a "massive confidence boost" after being rejected from a previous one she entered.

She said: "I really needed it. It's such an amazing thing to say this has happened to me."

If she wins, Ms Roach will receive £1,000, while those in second and third place receive £500 and £350 respectively.

"I would put [the prize money] towards a post-Covid holiday, whenever that may be," she said.

The winner will be announced on 22 September.