Tove Jansson was a long term fan of Lewis Carroll’s work and had studied the layout of his books (with John Tenniel’s illustrations) when creating Comet in Moominland. So the suggestion that she supply illustrations for a new edition of The Hunting of the Snark, with its cast of strange characters and surreal comic tone … Continue reading
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, you can’t have missed Luke Pearson’s intrepid beret wearing adventuress Hilda – although under a rock is exactly where you’ll find Hilda in her new book, which takes us deep inside the mountains near her home, a vast networks of tunnels and caves … Continue reading
Having found out how author Abi Elphinstone uses map making as a creative aid earlier in the month, I wanted to ask the illustrator of her books, Thomas Flintham about the process of turning a writer’s imagined worlds into a piece of art. Here he talks about his work on the ‘Last Wild’ series by Piers Torday. Continue reading
Everybody loves a good map at the front of a book. I got a little obsessed with them a few months ago when I started a new pinterest board of literary maps. Soon the good people of Twitter weighed in and I got to see a lot more brilliant examples, including a few by Thomas … Continue reading
David Lucas is a picture book maker in the classic mould. He works with simple shapes and beautiful decorative patterns to create stories that have a timeless feel. His storytelling is deeply rooted in fairy tale and fable, communicating simple but profound truths about our world all delivered with a sly sense of humour. But … Continue reading
There’s a lot of horror in Tove’s work, Grokes, Hattifatteners and in the psychological short story A Tale of Horror (1962), monstrous Little My. ‘That girl… you’d never believe… I’m not going back there, not in a thousand years,” the Whomper continued savagely. “She tricked me! she told such stories! She makes people sick with her lies!’ Continue reading
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is the most important children's book of all time. Not his best, and not my favourite but definitely the most important. It's the book's fiftieth anniversary this year so I thought I'd take the opportunity to explain why it's so damn IMPORTANT, and while I’m at it showcase some of … Continue reading
Amidst all the Hobbit hype there’s really only one Tolkien product you really need to check out today – Letters from Father Christmas. Every year between 1920 and 1942 he would send his children an envelope containing an elaborately illustrated, and scratchily hand written letter pupporting to be from the great man. I wrote a … Continue reading
