The Griffin & Sabine Trilogy
Boxed Set:
Griffin & Sabine
Sabine's Notebook
The Golden Mean
Nick Bantock
(Reviewer - Rebecca Brown)
Chronicle Books; Boxed edition (November 1994)
ISBN: 0811806960

An Extraordinary Correspondence between Griffin, a young artist living in London, England & Sabine, a free spirit from another part of the world in the form of interactive books of letters in envelopes, drawings & postcards.

Another gift my from loving son, The Griffin & Sabine Trilogy came into my ken & took my keen sense of curiosity into the far reaches of my imagination. I've been a doodler on postcards - nothing, absolutely nothing as good as Nick Bantock's work & imagination.

This is a correspondence of remarkably few words yet each & every one, whether in an address or a postmark as well as thoughts of the writers are raindrops in the center of a palmate of lupine leaves. Sparkling with color, optical illusions of immense possibilities.

On the endpapers a map of London's Underground System (what memories that map brings me!) & a Mercator Projection of the Equatorial Pacific Islands are reproduced in alternating vertical bands - be prepared for a didactic, schizophrenic, breathtakingly beautiful & enchanting exchange across the miles & through time & space.

Now Griffin Moss is a postcard artist whose life is lived in images - letting his pictures speak the thousand words he'd rather not write. Imagine receiving a postcard from someone you have not met, someone who knows what you have just drawn in your collection.

Griffin, naturally, writes a polite postcard back to this new voice from half a world away & so begins a magical exchange; a mystical “getting to know you” replete with stamps & visions that leave you dizzy & thirsty for more.

Soon Sabine & Griffin are not content with postcards & they progress to letters in envelopes written in pen & ink. I remember the feel of the pen nib skating upon paper leaving its trail of ink, forming cursive writing & exotic doodles. Even the quality of ink coloring every squiggle is faithfully reproduced.

My son knows me well - for this Extraordinary Correspondence comes in envelopes embellished with inspired sketches, comedic encounters between sketches from revered old masters, botanical drawing & odd little additions that come to light as you sit & really “see” the pages. (Rather like mine.)

Who are you? Where are you? Griffin writes yearning to solve this intriguing mystery of someone who can read his mind & seems so strange yet familiar. Their thoughts fly across the oceans until Griffin can stand it no more; terrified that Sabine is only imaginary & more than half in love with her, dreading he has only created her to ease his loneliness, Griffin Moss runs away.

Sabine's Notebook:

Now the endpapers are a star's eye view of a desert or, perhaps, a Rorschach of splattered paint & we begin with an envelope containing a letter from Griffin Moss stating:

“If you are reading this, then you exist...” Griffin, in panic has fled, leaving his studio stripped naked. Next time we meet Sabine she writes of her sorrow that she has frightened him. What does he fear so much that he must run away from the very thing he loves so much? Now Sabine is where Griffin was & now Griffin is far away, in time as well as space. From Italy, to Greece, to Egypt to Japan he makes his way to the Solomon Islands where he faces his nemesis.

Ecstatic with his choice, Griffin hurries home only to find an enigmatic postcard from Sabine waiting.

The Golden Mean:

Having eluded each other, Griffin & Sabine, are losing contact. Sabine's ability to visualize Griffin's artwork grows dim; time is running out. The Golden Mean is the harmony of perfect balance, which they both seek.

As Sabine handwrites her letters & Griffin types his frantic responses, they learn more about each other, a steadiness grows between them, a sense of purpose. They both return to their work: she designing stamps for her chain of island's post office & he to his postcard collection.

Then Victor Frolatti makes contact & the monster of suspicion is let loose.

Oh, how I dreaded reading on! How I noticed the darkness & chaotic colorations in these lovers' pages, pictures & envelopes.

Nick Bantock completes The Griffin & Sabine Trilogy in his inimitable whimsical way, leaving our imaginations throbbing with vitality & possibility.

Is this a love story? Science fiction? Or fantasy?

You will find no more fantastic a gift for letter-writing friends & lovers than this trilogy. I am impressed & madly in love with it all.
(05/27/01)

Rebecca