A Lion in Paris

"Beatrice Alemagna’s artwork obviously speaks to illustrators, because I know lots of illustrators love her. I think that’s because she pushes the boundaries of what’s seen as children’s book illustration. She’s experimental and isn’t afraid to be to be different. I remember finding her books quite surprising when I first saw them at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair . She was memorable and really stood out amongst the illustrators. I also chose this book because it’s such an unusual format. It’s really big, it is landscape, and you open it up vertically which creates a tall portrait book. The illustrations are shown on the bottom page, which means her illustrations are completely uninterrupted by the text, which is separate on the top page. This feels right for Beatrice’s beautiful illustrations, and I like that the illustrations are given such prominence and importance. Yes. A lot of the faces are photographs. It reminds me of some of my college projects as an art student. I used to buy 1950s ideal home magazines and cut them up and use them in my artwork. What I also love about this book is that it’s a celebration of Paris . I grew up in London , and I could spend hours in London tourist shops looking at all the buses and maps; maybe it appeals to me as a designer. It is lovely, the way she goes around all the Paris landmarks and draws them. It ends up with the lion in the book sitting on a plinth and becoming part of Paris, that’s a really unexpected ending. She talks about her arrival in Paris and how she realised over time that the lion represents in a way all foreigners and their need to find a place to live happily, so this book has got a lovely message as well. Yes, the lion waited to see if he would terrify anyone. He looks a bit nervous, drinking his coffee in the café but everyone’s too busy living their own lives to notice him. It’s got a scene of him on the metro: “The lion liked to be noticed and thought it was very sad to be ignored”. It’s a nice personal story, and I think she’s brilliant at compositions. Her artwork feels very uncontrived. I remember reading in an interview that she feels she can’t do perfect perspective so decided not to worry about it and just do what comes naturally instead. As an artist, there’s always a part of you that feels that you need to have the perfect perspective and be able to do everything skilfully to be “good”, but I think it’s when you let go of that and just let yourself be who you want to be as an illustrator that you find your voice. This book feels like it’s a celebration of finding your own individual creative voice. It depends on the reading age of your child, because children have such different reading ages even if they’re the same age as each other. I would say the books I’ve chosen are for children age 5-9 or perhaps 4-9. I’ve mostly chosen books that can be enjoyed by adults as well as children. When I worked in publishing, I was really obsessed with a book being appropriate for a child and I used to feel sceptical of books that felt like they were made for an adult audience. But I’ve come full circle on that now, and I think that’s totally an appropriate market; why not have some children’s books for adults to enjoy? Yes, the children’s book illustration market often assumes that the child will only want bright colours and a cartoony style, which is a little bit patronising for children. If a child can enjoy looking at a Picasso , which I think they can, then I don’t see why they can’t enjoy being presented with something that they might need to look a bit harder at and spend some time over. Both my parents are artists, so I was brought up looking at art. A lot of the 20th-century artists were particularly influential for me. At home we were often painting and drawing and doing pottery and even carving, so it was a very creative household. I always thought I’d be an artist, and I did fine art painting for my first degree. When I graduated I realised that I couldn’t afford a studio and got a temporary job at Dorling Kindersley, and then a job at a company called Pinwheel where I was doing novelty book paper engineering — books with flaps, books with moving mechanisms, cloth books, bath books… It was a really creative outlet for me, and it captured me for a long time. I worked as a designer and art director for about 15 years. When I got a job as head of Campbell Books, a novelty book imprint, it was a new experience for me, as I managed editors as well as designers and illustrators. I was responsible for the whole of the list of about 80 books a year, which was amazing but less hands-on creatively. I suddenly found myself in my early forties having an almost lightbulb moment of realising that I wanted to be an artist. So after over 20 years in publishing, I handed in my notice to become a children’s book illustrator. It was a really scary move. This might sound a bit romantic, but illustration isn’t just a commercial endeavour for me, it goes much deeper. I had such meaningful connections with books as a child, I just can’t let them go. Also, my lifelong desire and intention to be an “artist” has extra meaning for me because of my 20-year detour into doing a “real job”, albeit a lovely one, so coming back to creative work feels like a true passion fulfilled. The books I have chosen in some ways reflect that. They are children’s books that feel like they are made by artists, and the pictures draw me in, in the same way as when I was a child. I feel very lucky! When the art director first asked me to illustrate the book, all I could picture was the first sentence: “Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse”. I decided that I wasn’t going to look at any of the other books because I didn’t want to copy something, even subconsciously. The main thing I wanted to do was to bring as much storytelling as I could into the poem, which is quite lyrical. It tells the story of Santa visiting the family from the perspective of the father. I thought about the children who would be reading the book and it felt right to bring the whole family into the story. As soon as I did that, the whole book came to life! I liked that although Santa doesn’t interact with the family (he doesn’t know they have seen him) he does interact with the family’s pets — a cat and a dog. That felt like it brought a bit of life and connection into the story. I also really enjoyed adding little details, like the food wrapped in foil in the kitchen, ready for the big day. It was intimidating at first, to illustrate such an iconic poem, but as soon as I drew everyone, including Santa, they all became a little bit like family, and I found I lost myself in the work I created. It was very exciting, and a real privilege being entrusted with the project. It felt very special to work with The Folio Society, a publisher I had admired from afar for years. It still feels like a dream that I made a book with them! The Folio Society edition of Clement C. Moore’s The Night Before Christmas , illustrated by Ella Beech, is available exclusively from The Folio Society"