MATT Dawson was leafing through his copy of the Guardian newspaper one Saturday when his eyes focused on one particularly interesting piece of text.

It was a competition giving Guardian readers the opportunity to redesign the cover of one of the books in the Penguin Modern Classic range, using a photograph.

Included in the literary list were George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and a book Matt remembered from his university days Mikhail Bulgakov's Master and Margarita.

Matt's university tutor had recommended he read the book and he had thoroughly enjoyed it.

So, looking at the competition details again, Milnthorpe-based Matt rose to the challenge.

Matt says the Russian names in the book can make it a slow read but the scene which he used for the cover, where a theatre compere gets decapitated by a large black cat, had always stuck in his head.

"The photograph itself involved me designing shadow puppets of the cat and man in card and red acetate, and photographing them through a bed sheet."

As well as the kudos that goes with having your artwork gracing the front of one of Penguin's illustrious tomes, Matt and the other three winners each landed a pair of Nikon cameras.

Matt was born in Bolton, moved to Derbyshire aged four, went to school in Bakewell, art college in Chesterfield and did a design degree in Leeds.

Since graduating, he worked as a graphic designer for a company in Surrey for five years and moved to Cumbria last year to develop his illustration and photography portfolio in "more relaxed and picturesque surroundings." However, the Lancashire lad's now returning to his old job in Surrey and longs to become a full-time illustrator. With a classic Penguin cover in his portfolio, at least he's one step nearer to his goal.