Signed Books: PUSS IN BOOTS by Philip Pullman and Ian Beck

 

Having recently written in praise of the work of my friend, artist and illustrator, Ian Beck, I thought I'd choose this signed volume as it links him with another of my heroes, Philip Pullman...

 

 

The Adventures of that Most Enterprising Feline Puss in Boots (2000) is an ingeniously-presented retelling of that popular fairy-tale, the oldest version of which was written by Italian author Giovanni Francesco Straparola, who included it in his The Facetious Nights of Straparola (c. 1550–1553). Later, of course, it found its way into French and the better-known narrative found in Charles Perrault's 1697 book Histoires ou contes du temps passé. This particularly delightful interpretation combines an elegant nod to the antique ('Written by Mr. Philip Pullman and Illustrated by Mr. Ian Beck') with a modern graphic-novel twist...

 

I first encountered Philip Pullman when I interviewed him for a radio programme I was making about J. R. R. Tolkien and I mentioned that Tolkien had intended his stories of Middle-earth to be seen as having taken place in Britain thousands of years ago. "Well," he responded, "I'd be happy to accept that as a fact when an archeologist finds the first hobbit skull!"

 

We met again when I was writing my 'making-of-the-movie-guide' to the 2007 film version of his The Golden Compass – indeed, I have a copy of my book signed by Mr P which I picked up on ebay! Other signed Pullmans in the collection are the 'His Dark Materials' trilogy (inscribed to me by the author and illustrator, John Lawrence), The Book of Dust and Daemon Voices.

 

Puss in Boots was a purchase and – apart from everything else delightful about the book – I especially like the fact that the author and illustrator have signed the title-page in the same antique style as their names are printed: each preceded by a 'Mr.'

 

 

 

 

AN ARTIST'S YEAR IN LOCK-DOWN

 

Joy unbounded! Delight unrestrained!

Just received: Ian Beck's recently published The Light in Suburbia. 

 

 

Having followed Ian's year-long, week-on-week sharing of these paintings on his always lively and engaging Facebook page, to now have and revisit these glorious presentations of light and colour (or, sometimes, the absence of colour) in book-form has provided a journey of re-discovery. For, from the book's elegantly written introduction we are provided with the reason why and how Ian began making these potent, emotionally-charged images. 

 

For so many of us the Covid-19 lock-down – with its vacant streets and timeless atmosphere and with the empty skies reclaimed from the drone of aircraft by the song of birds – released long-locked-away memories of our youth.

 

For Ian, after an extraordinary and hugely successful career as one of our great national illustrators (over a hundred books and counting), lock-down gave him the opportunity and insight to re-view the 'ordinary' world of his everyday dog-walks with an artist's-eye sensibility, capturing the 'extraordinary' in what, at other times might pass for the commonplace. Infused with recollections of his childhood and his early days as a student of the craft of which he is such a master, he found a new source of creative inspiration; as he says: 'I noticed clearly and tried to record the beauty around me in the unprepossessing every day.'

 

This record of such perceived beauty – elusive but for the imposed mindfulness of a pandemic – takes on a year-long journey, season-by-season, not across stunning natural landscapes, but along the streets, back gardens (with, sometimes, interior glimpses behind kitchen windows) of a London suburb where the natural world and human habitation tolerantly co-exist: tree-lined streets of semi-detached 1920s villas – variegated with the odd startlingly-rigid modernist house – illuminated by the pale sunlight of spring, the blaze of summer, the weakening glow of autumn or the pellucid light of street-lamp and moonshine.

 

Although Ian thanks his social media followers for their enthusiasm and encouragement, I wonder if he is fully aware just how very much his artist's journey through lock-down helped the rest of us carry the heavy burdens of what has been, without doubt, the strangest of years. 

 

Now, the record of that journey, in the form of this book, will go on transforming the vision of day-to-day things and places for anyone who turns its pages...