JKR

The new design for the UK passport will be issued from October. When the current passport moved to a floppy burgundy cover from the previous hardback black version we presumably saved money but lost a little dignity. These designs redress that a tad, I think. The inner pages are currently a rather generic and repetitive bank note pattern. These are changing to feature complex “engravings” which celebrate our weather, landscape, flora and fauna in a bucolic Betjeman-like manner.

One can anticipate some carping that this approach is anachronistic and twee – that we should use our passport as a canvas for the most progressive design we can produce. Personally, when it comes to something which represents my national identity, I want a solidly old fashioned document rather than a shrill “Cool Britannia” alternative (or one with an image of the Gherkin).

It’s uncommon to find contemporary official documents with soul, and a joy to find ones that make an effort – the craft and care invested here is presumably a pre belt-tightening exercise, and to my eyes give us something we can proudly brandish at foreign borders. Sometimes a traditional approach is appropriate, and I think the choice of images here will do a good job of making weary travellers think of home with affection. Some half-remembered lines by Wordsworth came to mind when I saw the designs…

I travell’d among unknown men,
In lands beyond the sea;
Nor, England! did I know till then
What love I bore to thee.

‘Tis past, that melancholy dream!
Nor will I quit thy shore
A second time; for still I seem
To love thee more and more.

This story and images via the Creative Review blog (which interestingly saw something prog rock in the blue cottages etc.)