Icon bags artist Bramley's 'stunning' Pandemic Baby debut

Icon Books is to publish artist Pia Bramley’s debut book, Pandemic Baby, a visual diary of her experience of becoming a parent in lockdown.

Bramley’s illustrations "capture the intimacy of the small, strange world of the pandemic baby". Drawing on her own experience as a new parent, she follows a child through the course of its first year: "the quiet streets of the first lockdown, the relative freedom of summer, the long nights of autumn and winter and, finally, new hope as spring arrives and life begins to open up again".

Commissioning editor Clare Bullock acquired world rights from the author. Bullock said: "Those of us who became parents in the pandemic could never have predicted what our babies’ first year of life would like. Pia’s stunning illustrations detail the highs and lows of that experience. This is a warm, wise and funny book that will resonate with a huge number of people – be they friends, grandparents or parents themselves – who know a pandemic baby. I’m delighted to be able to bring Pia’s work to Icon, at such an exciting time of growth for the list, and, with the full support of everyone in the company, turn the project around at lightning speed."

Bramley studied at the Royal Drawing School and the University of Brighton. Pandemic Baby is her first book.