Picador Collection

Era-defining modern classics with a bold new look.

2022 marked fifty years of Picador and the launch of the Picador Collection, a new list of contemporary classics taken from and inspired by Picador’s agenda-setting and boundary-pushing publishing.

Sonny Mehta first launched Picador as an imprint in 1972 with the aim of publishing outstanding international writing. The Picador Paperback Originals quickly became known for their iconic white spines, which were the mainstay of many readers' bookshelves.

What defines a Picador book is the author’s voice . . .
. . . The way a story is told is just as important as the story itself.

These books were known for being challenging, contemporary and eclectic fiction and non-fiction that started conversations and inspired cult followings. These were titles that readers and booksellers eagerly pressed into each other’s hands and the hands of customers, and that held a distinctive voice at the heart of their storytelling. 

Today, Picador publishes writers from all over the world and provides a platform for voices that are often not heard. It is home to Nobel Prize winners, such as V.S. Naipaul, Booker Prize winners from Patrick McCabe to Douglas Stuart and major international bestsellers. 

From the jet-black splatter satire of Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho, to the unforgettable story of Jude, JB, Willem and Malcolm in Hanya Yanagihara's A Little Life and the prescient, dystopian fiction of Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven, Picador Collection introduces the best of our publishing since 1972 to a new generation of readers and sees the classic white spines reimagined with a bold new look. 


Explore the Picador Collection

Technically dazzling, award-winning and culturally significant, these are books that inspire devotion, each with a unique and inimitable voice.

Book cover for White Noise

White Noise

Don DeLillo

Book cover for Great Jones Street

Great Jones Street

Don DeLillo

Book cover for Underworld

Underworld

Don DeLillo

Book cover for The Names

The Names

Don DeLillo

Book cover for Mao II

Mao II

Don DeLillo

Book cover for End Zone

End Zone

Don DeLillo

Book cover for American Psycho

American Psycho

Bret Easton Ellis

Book cover for Less Than Zero

Less Than Zero

Bret Easton Ellis

Book cover for Lunar Park

Lunar Park

Bret Easton Ellis

Book cover for The Rules of Attraction

The Rules of Attraction

Bret Easton Ellis

Book cover for Station Eleven

Station Eleven

Emily St. John Mandel

Book cover for Middle Passage

Middle Passage

Charles Johnson

Book cover for Room

Room

Emma Donoghue

Book cover for So You've Been Publicly Shamed

So You've Been Publicly Shamed

Jon Ronson

Book cover for Red Dust Road

Red Dust Road

Jackie Kay

Book cover for The Stranger's Child

The Stranger's Child

Alan Hollinghurst

Book cover for The Line of Beauty

The Line of Beauty

Alan Hollinghurst

Book cover for The Sparsholt Affair

The Sparsholt Affair

Alan Hollinghurst

Book cover for A Manual for Cleaning Women

A Manual for Cleaning Women

Lucia Berlin

Book cover for A Little Life

A Little Life

Hanya Yanagihara

Book cover for The People in the Trees

The People in the Trees

Hanya Yanagihara

Book cover for Nevada

Nevada

Imogen Binnie

Book cover for Cultural Amnesia

Cultural Amnesia

Clive James

Book cover for The World's Wife

The World's Wife

Carol Ann Duffy

Book cover for Feminine Gospels

Feminine Gospels

Carol Ann Duffy

Book cover for Annie John

Annie John

Jamaica Kincaid

Book cover for Lucy

Lucy

Jamaica Kincaid

Book cover for At the Bottom of the River

At the Bottom of the River

Jamaica Kincaid

Book cover for The Autobiography of My Mother

The Autobiography of My Mother

Jamaica Kincaid

Book cover for Among Flowers

Among Flowers

Jamaica Kincaid

Book cover for Blood Meridian

Blood Meridian

Cormac McCarthy

Book cover for Child of God

Child of God

Cormac McCarthy

Book cover for All the Pretty Horses

All the Pretty Horses

Cormac McCarthy

Book cover for No Country for Old Men

No Country for Old Men

Cormac McCarthy

Book cover for Cities of the Plain

Cities of the Plain

Cormac McCarthy

Book cover for The Crossing

The Crossing

Cormac McCarthy

Book cover for The Road

The Road

Cormac McCarthy

Book cover for The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

Oliver Sacks

Book cover for Awakenings

Awakenings

Oliver Sacks

Book cover for On the Move

On the Move

Oliver Sacks

Book cover for Migraine

Migraine

Oliver Sacks

Book cover for Uncle Tungsten

Uncle Tungsten

Oliver Sacks

Book cover for A Leg to Stand On

A Leg to Stand On

Oliver Sacks

Book cover for Into Thin Air

Into Thin Air

Jon Krakauer

Book cover for Into the Wild

Into the Wild

Jon Krakauer

Book cover for Essays In Love

Essays In Love

Alain de Botton

Book cover for Stories of Your Life and Others

Stories of Your Life and Others

Ted Chiang

Book cover for The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Rebecca Skloot

Book cover for Burial Rites

Burial Rites

Hannah Kent

Book cover for Damned If I Do

Damned If I Do

Percival Everett

Book cover for I Am Not Sidney Poitier

I Am Not Sidney Poitier

Percival Everett

Book cover for Percival Everett by Virgil Russell

Percival Everett by Virgil Russell

Percival Everett

Book cover for Telephone

Telephone

Percival Everett

Book cover for Assumption

Assumption

Percival Everett

Book cover for So Much Blue

So Much Blue

Percival Everett


How Hanya Yanagihara's modern classic, A Little Life, took on a visual life of its own

Hanya Yanagihara, author of A Little Life, explains how her novel took on a visual life online and we share just a few of our favourite images shared by fans.

Read more

A bold new look

Design has always been at the heart of Picador’s publishing, and Picador Collection has been created to give new life to these important books with a bold contemporary look.

The creative ethos behind this modern design celebrates the titles with newly commissioned illustration, photography and design. It provides a platform for artists from a variety of backgrounds and experiences and showcases striking and innovative covers from both known and unknown creators.

When the covers are stacked together they create a visual illusion of open books, inviting the reader to pick them up and enter into them.
Katie Tooke, Design Manager

The result is a look that stands with and apart from other classics lists, and that is full of life. 

Book spines from the collection

Books that start conversations

'Poetry pursues the human': a guide to the work of Carol Ann Duffy

Carol Ann Duffy's poetry is often comic, often dark, often deeply, knottily romantic; never classifiable as one thing or another. We present our guide to her collections and anthologies.

Read more

Bret Easton Ellis, writing the books people have been telling us not to publish since 1985

To publish or not to publish, that is the question. In the case of Bret Easton Ellis's cult debut novel, this reader was certain: ‘I'd pass'.

Read more

'Believe it or not, the pandemic was entirely incidental to the plot.' Emily St John Mandel on Station Eleven

The Sea of Tranquility writer discusses parallel existences, what she would put in the Museum of Civilization and why Station Eleven was never intended to be a pandemic novel.

Read more

A guide to the works of the incomparable Jamaica Kincaid

Jamaica Kincaid's books are beloved for their candour, insight and honest exploration of familial relationships and colonial legacy. Here, Leah Cowan shares her guide to just some of Jamaica Kincaid's must-read works.

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'Something of a literary outlaw': a guide to Cormac McCarthy

From the dark dystopia of The Road to the anti-Western Blood Meridian and the riveting No Country for Old Men, Cormac McCarthy's writing is courageous and uncompromising. Here, Travis Elborough gives us his guide to Cormac McCarthy's books.

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Jon Ronson reflects on our changing relationship with social justice

Simultaneously powerful and hilarious in a way only he can be, listen as Jon Ronson reflects on the true stories that not only inspired him but have stayed with him long after he finished writing his modern classic, and shares what his relationship with social media is like in 2022. . . 

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Jackie Kay reads from Red Dust Road

Watch Jackie Kay read from her unforgettable memoir, renowned for its remarkable warmth and candour, in this exclusive video.


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