It's a plain little cover, evocative of the 50's - so there put that in yer pipe and smoke it!

People, who ask questions, sometimes not really looking, or waiting for an answer asked “Why is the cover of Streets of Birdsong, plain and unexciting?

I don't tell them, just ask what they think it should have been. I never get suggestions. That's the problem with people they have views on everything in their own head, but will never speak out about what those views are. 

It's an Irish form of Paranoia: fear that people will overhear you, or form a view of you by hearing what you say or think.

The clue to the cover is in the time period depicted, and Ireland where Irish books were not widely available and those that were suffered from a lack of publishers' financial support. Don't judge the book by the cover was the mantra. So a really amateur type cover sometimes contained gems.

So the cover of Streets depicts the time, the history, the stories, the characters of Midland Ireland, and the poverty of not having a flash cover.