Chris Riddell 

A modern view on the classics of children’s literature

A new series brings together some of the world's greatest children's literature with the best contemporary illustrators. Take a look at images from the first five titles in the Walker Illustrated Classics series
  
  


Children's Illustration: Classic Children Book Illustration
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame, illustrated by Inga Moore

Inga Moore is a distinguished author and illustrator of children's books. Winner of the Smarties prize for Six Dinner Sid, she has also illustrated The Secret Garden in the Walker Classics series. Inga lives in Gloucestershire Photograph: PR
Children's Illustration: Classic Children Book Illustration
'Illustrating the book took over two years, two wonderful years spent in the company of Ratty, Mole, Mr Badger and The Toad. As I worked I found myself thinking more and more about their creator, Kenneth Grahame ... ' Photograph: PR
Children's Illustration: Classic Children Book Illustration
' ... Perhaps this is inevitable when you go deeply into a work, but I like to think it was also because I share his love of the English countryside. Searching there for inspiration for my illustrations, it was as if I had - even it it was just for a while - come upon a common spring.'
Inga Moore Photograph: PR
Children's Illustration: Classic Children Book Illustration
Classic Poetry selected by Michael Rosen, illustrated by Paul Howard

Paul Howard is the award-winning illustrator of many children's books, including The Bravest Ever Bear and A Year in the City Photograph: PR
Children's Illustration: Classic Children Book Illustration
'The idea of illustrating classic poetry terrified me at first - I can't remember jokes let alone poems from my school days and consequently think of myself as a 'poetus ignoramus'. To my great surprise this worked in my favour and I found myself embarking on a fantastic voyage of discovery. I lived and breathed poetry for months, collecting many images of each poet. I wanted the portraits to reflect the period in which the poets lived, and countless visits to museums and libraries and a mountain of research lies behind the pictures ... ' Photograph: PR
Children's Illustration: Classic Children Book Illustration
' ... I found myself drawing, painting, doing lino cuts, monoprints and pastels. When I was battling to understand some of the poems, Michael Rosen would read them to me aloud. Listening to him was like clearing a misty window and letting the sun pour in.'
Paul Howard Photograph: PR
Children's Illustration: Classic Children Book Illustration
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury

Helen Oxenbury is one of today's foremost illustrators and has won many awards including the Kate Greenaway medal twice - for the Quangle Wangle's Hat and The Dragon of an Ordinary Family (1969) and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1999). She has also won the Smarties prize three times Photograph: PR
Children's Illustration: Classic Children Book Illustration
'I was introduced to Alice in Wonderland by my mother who had loved it as a child. I admire Tenniel's original illustrations enormously, but I find his typically Victorian style rather stiff ... ' Photograph: PR
Children's Illustration: Classic Children Book Illustration
' ... Though Alice in Wonderland has been illustrated by many different artists since, my rationale for attempting another version was to make Alice a child of our time and to include many more illustrations of the wonderful and eccentric peripheral characters that people Carroll's masterpiece.'
Helen Oxenbury Photograph: PR
Children's Illustration: Classic Children Book Illustration
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, illustrated by Inga Moore Photograph: PR
Children's Illustration: Classic Children Book Illustration
'The Secret Garden is one of the greatest books for children of all time and it took me a long while to pluck up the courage to illustrate it. What made me think I could do it justice? I knew a merely decorative approach wouldn't do for a work with such depth of meaning so I decided to bring out as much of its meaning as I could in my pictures, carefully placing them next to the words they illustrated in the hope that the two together would make a more vivid whole ... ' Photograph: PR
Children's Illustration: Classic Children Book Illustration
' ... I drew a great number of pictures - it is a very long book - and by the time I came close to the end I was very tired. But I was never tired of Frances Hodgson Burnett's wonderful story. I read some passages over and over again, and every time I found something new, something I had not seen before.'
Inga Moore Photograph: PR
Children's Illustration: Classic Children Book Illustration
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling, illustrated by Nicola Bayley

Nicola Bayley's The Mousehole Cat and Katje the Windmill Cat were both shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway medal. She lives in London Photograph: PR
Children's Illustration: Classic Children Book Illustration
'For me, illustrating a classic is treading a fine line between authenticity and beauty. I'd been to India and visited all sorts of places you wouldn't normally see and I went to libraries in London to find out what the country was like in Kipling's time. But then I added things of my own, like the borders, which enrich the book and try to capture the spicy, earthy colours I remembered ... ' Photograph: PR
Children's Illustration: Classic Children Book Illustration
' ... For Mowgli, I looked at hundreds of photos I have of my son to understand how a body moves. That made it very personal.'
Nicola Bayley Photograph: PR
Children's Illustration: Classic Children Book Illustration
Don Quixote retold by Martin Jenkins, illustrated by Chris Riddell

Chris Riddell is an author, illustrator and political cartoonist for The Observer. Two of his books have won the Nestle children's book award, and he has twice won the Kate Greenaway medal - for Pirate Diary and Jonathan Swift's Gulliver. Chris lives in Brighton Photograph: PR
Children's Illustration: Classic Children Book Illustration
'I had read Don Quixote as a student, in the Smollett translation, and loved its labyrinthine plot twists and digressions but must admit to finding it rather dense and dusty. Martin's retelling is wonderful, blowing the dust away and uncovering a sparkle and wit that I'd forgotten. When I read Martin's version I couldn't wait to saddle up and join him in tilting at windmills. Very early on I decided not to be daunted by the size of the book and to approach light-heartedly, in an attempt to reflect the satire and humour in the work. Don Quixote is a great big book that satires great big books, an epic romance that pokes fun at epic romances. I looked at the paintings of Velázquez, and used costumes and settings from his great Royal portraits to give the illustrations a 17th-century feel, but I also wanted a fantasy feel to the illustrations, so the giants and monsters came out of my imagination ... ' Photograph: PR
Children's Illustration: Classic Children Book Illustration
' ... The Don Quixote illustrations came tumbling out in a great avalanche over a period of three months, leading up to Christmas, but I'd sat in my garden that summer and sketched and scribbled over the galleys with a stubby pencil, roughing the book out. I wanted the illustrations to complement the text, rather than getting in the way of the epic story, which is why I put the black and white artwork behind the text boxes. It felt playful and also allowed me to use scale and close-ups to add dramatic effect.'
Chris Riddell Photograph: PR
 

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