Henrietta Bredin on how book illustrations can bring the narrative to life
The illustrations in children’s books play a crucial role in expanding the imaginative horizons of the reader and fixing the story in the memory. The very best book illustration is so inextricably linked to the text that it is hard to think of one without the other. Christianna Brand’s Nurse Matilda stories, quite apart from being published in alluringly small, pocketable volumes, are defined by Edward Ardizzone’s dashingly vivid drawings, as are the Chronicles of Narnia by Pauline Baynes’s delicate and precise depictions of Mr Tumnus the faun, the valiant Prince Caspian and Jadis, the vicious, Turkish-Delight-bearing White Witch, while Roald Dahl’s anarchic world is brilliantly matched by Quentin Blake and his raggedy, effervescent creations.
Long before any of the above, Andrew Lang’s collections of fairy tales would state temptingly on the title page that they contained ‘eight colour plates and numerous illustrations by H.J.
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