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
‘Fictional food’s not reliable,’ says Alexei, a character from Katherine Rundell’s third children’s novel The Wolf Wilder. This incorrect assertion is something Rundell disproves again and again in her delicious books. ‘I think food grounds a story: gives realism to the maddest plot, gives breathing space to the wildest action, brings comfort and humanity to … 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
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
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
In 1993, between finishing school and going to University, I spent a few months in Prague. I think you’d call this a gap year these days; time to fill with all sorts of worthwhile things such as helping lepers, that might one day help you get a menial job that isn’t going to pay. For … Continue reading
