The gaiety of Christmas isn’t natural territory for the master of the macabre. When we last met Edward Gorey he was recounting the season’s Twelve Terrors with John Updike. The Christmas Bower is a collaboration with writer Polly Redford, Gorey’s high-school friend from Chicago. As teenagers the pair agreed to one day make a book together and … Continue reading
A Santa book for our times, Christmas in July is the torrid tale of a year in which Saint Nick loses his pants to a rich, selfish New York businessman called Rump. ‘Who do you think I am?’ Rump fumed. ‘Santa Claus?’ ‘But I’m Santa,’ said Santa. ‘And those are my pants!’ ‘You’re a bum!’ … Continue reading
We last met Roger Duvoisin’s Santa as he rampaged around the streets of New York, like a festive Charles Bronson, wreaking revenge on what he called ‘false Santas’; tearing fake beards from their faces and sending the tottering pile of scalps back to the North pole in his sleigh. Now it’s Easter, and Santa’s in … Continue reading
When we last met Edward Gorey at Christmas he was recounting the season’s Twelve Terrors with John Updike. The bright lights and gaiety of the season aren’t perhaps the natural territory for the master of the macabre, so I was intrigued to come across this colourful looking addition to the Christmas canon. The Christmas … Continue reading
We return to New York today and take a ride on the Magic Carousel of Central Park. This is not the richly colourful New York of Ezra Jack Keat's The Snowy Day, but one that is shot through with splashes of grey and only occasionally enlivened by beaming baubles and enticing store fronts. Artist Ati … Continue reading
