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One of the big (and to some, surprising) hits of English language children’s publishing in 2013-2014 was a novel originally written in 1962 by an author very few people in the UK or the US had ever heard of. However, on its publication here, it was greeted with virtually universal acclaim, featuring in many “best of the year” book lists. In a matter of months reprints were ordered more than once.

That book was The Letter for the King by Tonke Dragt, available for the first time in English thanks to multi-award winning translator Laura Watkinson and Pushkin Press, a publisher committed to bringing more international classics to an audience notoriously wary of translations.

The Letter for the King is widely recognised in its home country, The Netherlands, as the best children’s book ever to be written in Dutch. And it’s success in the UK suggests that children here love it just as much as they do across the North Sea. My family, with one foot in each country, doubly loves the book, it having been a bedtime read multiple time in both languages.

So you can imagine my sheer delight when I opened a parcel on Friday to find it contained a proof of the bestseller’s sequel: The Secrets of the Wild Wood.

This really is one of the most exciting moments of my book-ish year. If anything, the sequel is even better than The Letter for the King; and I can say this having now read (or listened to) both books in both languages. Few sequels surpass their predecessors, but for my money The Secrets of the Wild Wood stakes an astonishingly good claim to doing just that.

Whilst a review will take some time to brew as I go back and look more in detail at the translation and let the (English language) story settle in my head and heart, I wanted to mark this very exciting occasion somehow. My excitement spurred me on to approach Pjotr van Lenteren, a Dutch journalist, who had the very good fortune to interview Tonke Dragt earlier this year. I asked if I might translate the resulting article (which originally appeared in the Dutch broadsheet Volkskrant) and very generously he agreed, so today I’m thrilled to bring you something very special and very rare – an interview with Tonke Dragt.

Tonke Dragt: My knights’ tales belong in England

By Pjotr van Lenteren 5 January 2015,
[originally published in the Volkskrant, available at http://www.volkskrant.nl/boeken/tonke-dragt-mijn-ridderboeken-horen-thuis-in-engeland~a3822758/

Children’s writer Tonke Dragt (84) has finally conquered England: The Letter for the King has been a success for more a year. In this rare interview she tells us how things stand with her.

‘So, now I’ll stop complaining’, says Tonke Dragt after talking continuously for quarter of an hour. Not so long ago the 84 year old children’s writer moved house to a private nursing home, because her previous one went bankrupt. Her arthritis has worsened and since Dragt broke her foot in inexplicable circumstances a month ago, she can barely walk any more.

‘I find the nights the hardest. I often don’t feel like going to sleep, but there’s nothing to do. I read a lot. The Scarlet Pimpernel for example, for old time’s sake, and to balance it out the Tao te Ching. They’re trying their best here, but sometimes I get really fed up with everything. That I’ve got physical difficulties, that’s clear, but sometimes they treat me as if my mind isn’t good either. They only believe I’ve written books when it is in the newspapers.’

She may have physical difficulties, but mentally the creator of the Letter for the King (1962), one of the best know Dutch children’s books, crowned with the Griffel of Griffels [each year the best Dutch children’s book of that year is crowned with a Golden Griffel (stylus), and in 2004 Letter for the King was picked as the best ever winner of a Golden Griffel / zt] is still her old self. She is enthusiastic about her late breakthrough in England. The Letter for the King has been a runaway success now for a year. ‘Yes, what can I say about it? I’m really delighted. Finally!’

So happy that she has – exceptionally – granted an interview. The fact that it has been published at all is something special; only 3% of books published in the UK are translations. In Germany, children can get all of Dragt’s books, in Spain more than half of her books are available. An edition has appeared in Indonesia, where Dragt grew up, and also one in the land of the occupiers at that time: Japan. [During the Second World War Dragt was imprisoned as a child in a Japanese camp in the then Dutch East Indies / zt]

The Letter for the King tells the story of Tiuri, a squire. On the eve before he is knighted, he leaves the chapel where he is holding a vigil, because someone asks him for help. A quest, which closely mirrors the classic knights’ tales which are so popular in the land of King Arthur and Tolkien.

But the only book of hers available in English until recently was the little read 1975 American translation of her science fiction book, The Towers of February. ‘That the English didn’t want The Letter for the King, I’ve never understood, to be honest. I have always felt that my knight tales belong there.”

The book was offered multiple times by her publishers, once indeed with a letter of recommendation from the famous English fantasy writer Alan Garner. “That time I got the parcel back with the wrapping torn open. Jolly good, I thought, they’ve opened it. It was the first time they’d done so, but even then they thought the cost of translation was too high.”

The 52-year-old spell was broken by Laura Watkinson, a Netherlands-based translator, who sent the first chapters in English to Adam Freudenheim of Pushkin Press, a publishing house specialising in translations of international classics, who had just launched a children’s imprint.

When one night his kids secretly pinched the manuscript in order that they could read more from it, he was won over. “They were delighted,” says Dragt. “They thought it was like Harry Potter. That’s nonsense of course – there are no knights in Harry Potter and in the Letter for the King no wizards. Oh well. They were going to publish it. Fine with me.”

And as to sales figures too, the Brits were proved wrong: All the major papers wrote glowingly about the book, the third printing was in the the shops before Christmas, and Watkinson is now dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s of its sequel: The Secrets of the Wild Wood.

‘Yes, I’m pleased. Really pleased. It’s finally done. Although… maybe my other books will find favour too. Sky High and Miles Wide, for example. [Dutch: Torenhoog en mijlenbreed / zt]. Who knows? I can dream about it, can’t it? I have to keep my mind a little bit busy to forget the failings of my body. It’s always good to have something to look forward to.’

She hopes to be able to return at some point to her own home, now modified, and to be amongst her own books and the collages that she’s been working on during the past few years [Dragt is an artist as well as a writer / zt]. She also wants to be present when the dolls’ house that she built as scenery for her last two novels is donated to the Museum of Literature. She even dreams of writing one more story. It has working title “The Painting of Wu Daozi” and is a key passage in her still unfinished final novel, The Road to the Cell.

‘It’s about a legendary painter from the 6th or 7th century BC. His paintings were so lifelike, that one day he disappeared into one of them. I often told my version in the classroom, when I was still an art teacher. It resulted in the most beautiful artwork. I never wanted to write it down, because I was afraid that then I wouldn’t be able to tell it any more. But now I often find myself thinking about it at night. Yes, I do think I should write down that story. Then you’ll understand everything.’

Our much loved collection of books by Tonke Dragt

I hope it goes without saying that any errors or misjudgments in the translation are mine and mine alone. I’m most grateful to Pjotr van Lenteren for permission to translate his Volkskrant article, and would encourage any of you who read Dutch to take a look at his book blog De Gelukkige Lezer or to follow him on Twitter @gelukkigelezer.

If the story Wu Daozi has piqued your interest, I can wholeheartedly recommend the exquisite picture book Brush of the Gods by Lenore Look, illustrated by Meilo So. I do hope that one day we get to read Tonke Dragt’s version of the story, but in the meantime I’m sure you’ll find plenty to enjoy in this Look and So’s retelling of Wu Daozi’s story. As to more from Dragt? I’m delighted to report that translator Laura Watkinson is now working on Dragt’s De Zevensprong, a book about a treasure hunt and a rescue mission which takes its title from a traditional song every Dutch child knows. A challenge for Watkinson to translate, but one I’m more than sure she’ll rise to!

The Secrets of the Wild Wood publishes on 3 September 2015 in the UK. Special thanks to my mother-in-law for first alerting me to Pjotr van Lenteren’s interview.

If you enjoyed this post, you might like to read the interview I carried out with Laura Watkinson, or this post about my favourite books translated from Dutch, with further suggestions for future translations from translator David Colmer.

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To celebrate the publication earlier this month of The Cat Who Came in Off the Roof by Annie M. G. Schmidt, translated by David Colmer, today I’m sharing my 5 favourite Dutch children’s books which are available in English (being a Dutch-English bilingual family this is something we know a little bit about ).

But that’s not all!

Thanks to award-winning translator David Colmer you’ll also be able to find out about some of the great Dutch titles just waiting to be translated. (Hint HINT Publishers! )

I reviewed The Cat who Came in off the Roof by Annie M. G. Schmidt, translated by David Colmer a couple of weeks ago (here’s my review in full) but my elevator pitch for this book is: This is a timeless, warm-hearted, thought-provoking and charming read all about one shy person’s struggle to stand up to power, alongside a clever exploration of the very essence of what it means to be human. And yes, there are lots of cats involved. It’s also very funny and written with a lightness of touch which ensures readers will devour this book despite its meaty themes. Last week one newspaper book reviewer called this brilliant book her “find of the year to date“. It might just turn out to be yours too!

An epic adventure involving knights, bravery and brotherhood, The Letter for the King by Tonke Dragt, translated by Laura Watkinson tells of a gripping quest full of excitement and peril; it speaks volumes that this book was named the best children’s book ever in its homeland. A young boy has almost completed the tasks he must undertake to become a knight, but when a stranger requests his help the boy cannot turn down the plea, even if it means abandoning his long held ambition to be knighted. He is tasked with delivering a secret letter to the King across the Great Mountains, a letter which holds the fate of an entire kingdom within its words. Fans of Tolkien or Arthurian legends will love this book, with its thrilling action, and an epic landscape with soaring mountains and mysterious forests. Chivalry, courage and fabulous characters abound this is a hugely enjoyable read to share with all the family. You can read my interview with the translator Laura Watkinson here.

The Day My Father Became a Bush by Joke van Leeuwen, translated by Bill Nagelkerke is a tender and yet funny and unsentimental story about a refugee child forced to leave her home country because of war. Whilst it is certainly thought provoking and moving, the darker side of the story is finely balanced with humour and pastries (the child’s father is a pastry chef – so there are plenty of excuses for enjoying this book with a choux bun or slice of mille-feuille!)

“A brilliant, eerily engrossing evocation of war as it brushes up against youth—a harsh slice of the world during a mean piece of history.” (Kirkus)

Mister Orange by Truus Matti, translated by Laura Watkinson first came to my attention early this year when it won the 2014 Mildred L. Batchelder Award

With one of the best openings I’ve read in a long while this is a moving story about the power of imagination, loss and longing. Set in New York during the Second World War it follows the hopes and fears of Linus, a teenage boy who steps into the shoes of his older brother, a soldier who has left to fight in Europe. Comics play an important role in this book, as does the redemptive power of art; (true) details of Dutch artist Piet Mondrian’s final years in the Big Apple are interwoven into Linus’ life, with evocative period description and a thoughtful exploration of growing-up.

From one of the most recently tranlated books to one that has been around for 44 years, Children on the Oregon Trail by An Rutgers van der Loeff, translated by Roy Edwards is a tale of endurance and skill following a family of orphaned children travelling west across America as pioneers in the 1840s. This enthralling story is based loosely on a real family of pioneer orphans, and if you or your kids have enjoyed the Laura Ingalls Wilder books or simply like stories where children show ingenuity and maturity without adults around, then do give this book a try. In fact, I’d recommend any book by Rutgers van der Loeff (several were translated in the 1950s and ’60s) for she really knows how to write adrenalin fuelled stories with a keen eye for the wider world.

Now over to David for his recommendations about Dutch children’s books still waiting to hit English language bookshelves:

Something else by Annie M.G. Schmidt.

[David has translated several books by the person many would call the Queen of Dutch children's literature, including a collection of Schmidt's poems, A Pond full of Ink, which has received much praise in the US /Zoe] ‘Wiplala‘ for instance and ‘Wiplala Again‘, a very funny two-book series about an elf-like creature called Wiplala, who has been banished for magical incompetence and plays havoc in a typical Schmidt-style single-parent household. ‘Wiplala’ was originally written in the 1950s but came out in a new edition with illustrations by Philip Hopman in 2007. A film version is currently in production.

‘Dunno’ by Joke van Leeuwen. [Dutch title: 'Kweenie']

Brilliant integration of text, typography and illustrations in this story about a character who falls out of a bedtime story and the little girl who tries to return him to his parents. Trouble is, there are so many stories… Which one was it? A children’s story about story telling itself sounds way too postmodern, but this book works on every level. More information about this book can be found on the website of the Dutch Foundation for Literature: http://www.letterenfonds.nl/en/book/291/dunno

‘Annabel Lee in the Dead of Night’ by Imme Dros, [Dutch title: 'Annetje Lie in de holst van de nacht'] with black-and-white illustrations by Margriet Heymans.

This is a hallucinatory story about a little girl in an uncertain world whose feverish dreams take on a life of their own. It’s eerie and strange, but my own daughter loved it and read it over and over. It was published in English in the 90s, but is now out of print. If nothing else, a new translation could respect the author’s wishes and call the main character “Annabel Lee” in English, as a homage to Edgar Allan Poe, whose work inspired the original.

Ingrid Godon and Toon Tellegen’s I Wish [Dutch title: Ik wou]

Maybe an art book more than a children’s book, Godon’s emotionally-charged naive portraits are wedded to Tellegen’s prose portraits to form a moving whole. And while I’m on the subject of Tellegen, his poetry and animal stories have been rightly praised in the UK, but his other work deserves publication too. Sneaking in another title, Pikkuhenki, with illustrations by Marit Törnqvist, is a gem in the fairy-tale genre with a great story about a tiny Russian witch who discovers that she has enormous powers and overthrows an evil tsar.

And that brings me to my last recommendation, another book my daughter couldn’t get enough of, insisting I it read over and over for her bedtime stories: Fairy Tales from the Low Countries by Eelke de Jong and Hans Sleutelaar, illustrated by Peter Vos. I’m partial to fairy tales, true, but the problem is that most collections are either poorly written or poorly translated or both. That’s not the case here, where the style is always clear and beautifully fluent, a joy to read out loud. This book reminds me of Italo Calvino’s Italian folktales, and besides variations on familiar Germanic themes, there are plenty of stories you’ve never heard before. My favourite: “One Hunchback Mocks Another”. Warning: not for Disney fans.

My thanks go to David for his excellent choice of books waiting for English translations. I do hope one or two publishers might be tempted by his suggestions!

I feel a little bit guilty for almost reaching the end of this post without mentioning Miffy or The Diary of Anne Frank – perhaps the two biggest exports from the world of Dutch children’s books. There are also many other books I’ve not been able to include in an attempt to keep the post from running on past everyone’s bedtime, but let me end by pointing out three publisher who have made a name for themselves publishing (amongst other things) brilliant Dutch children’s books in translation: Pushkin Press and Gecko Press with a special honorary mention to Book Island who have published several great books translated from Flemish by Belgian authors and illustrators.

Come back tomorrow when you could win a copy of The Cat who Came in off the Roof by Annie M. G. Schmidt, translated by David Colmer AND The Letter for the King by Tonke Dragt, translated by Laura Watkinson! Two of my favourite books in any language, I’m sure you’ll love them too.

Carll Cneut © Fabio Falcioni

The tour takes place in the autumn and its aim is to foster a lifelong love of literature in children by bringing them the best writers and illustrators to inspire and guide them. One of this year’s featured author/illustrators is the Belgian illustrator Carll Cneut.

Born in 1969 in a small village on the Belgian/French border Carll did not grow up dreaming of being an children’s book illustrator. In fact, he seriously considered a career as a circus artist before eventually settling down to study Graphic Design at the Saint-Lucas Arts School in Gent, the city where he still lives today.

© Carll Cneut. Image from De Blauwe Vogel (The blue bird), reproduced with permission. Click to see larger image.

Following graduation, Carll worked for a publicity agency but a chance meeting let to him being asked to illustrate a children’s book, Varkentjes van Marsepein (Piglets of Marzipan), in collaboration with Flemish author Geert De Kockere. This was the start of something unexpected and exciting for Carll, his first major project as a children’s book illustrator. Now he has more than 30 books to his name! Several of these have won prestigious prizes in the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy and France and in 2010 Carll Cneut was one of five illustrators shortlisted as finalists for the Hans Christian Andersen Award.

My kids and I have been familiar with Carll Cneut’s work for some time now, having several of his Dutch language books. When I saw he was coming to the UK as part of The Children’s Bookshow I jumped at the opportunity to interview him. Here’s how our conversation went…

Playing by the book: Hello Carll!

I write about children’s books at Playing by the book and I’ve a special interest in books translated into English from other languages, so it’s a real pleasure for me to be able to put a few questions to you ahead of your visit to the UK as part of The Children’s Bookshow.

What role did books play in your childhood? What were your favourite books? Given how popular comics are in Belgium, and that you went on to study Graphic Design (a route into creating comics), were comics indeed part of your childhood (as it happens my two girls love Suske en Wiske – we’re a bilingual English/Dutch home)?

Carll Cneut: Comics like Suske en Wiske and Jommeke are part of every child’s upbringing here in Flanders. I especially liked Jommeke as his adventures were more based on real life. And early on I started to draw the Jommeke character everywhere. I consider those – together with Mickey Mouse – my first attempts to drawing.

From an early age I started collecting illustrated fairy tale books, intrigued as I always was by the actual book, meaning the beautiful object a well published book can be; and the images. And although I didn’t read very much as a child, I owned tons of books, to just look and feel them. 

© Carll Cneut. Image from Het geheim van de keel van de nachtegaal (The secret of the nightingale’s throat ), reproduced with permission. Click to see larger image.

Playing by the book: Elsewhere you’ve described how you didn’t start out aiming to be a children’ book illustrator but now you are very happy to be exactly that – can you share with us some of what you enjoy so much about being an illustrator (and perhaps how it is different from what you imagined)?

Carll Cneut: As it is – I can’t even imagine being anything else than a book illustrator even though I never planned to become one. As a book illustrator you have the chance to create time after time an entire universe between two bookcovers. Also a book has a long life, opposed to editorial illustration. But the biggest difference from what I imagined it to be, is that it is not a solitary job. I’ve been travelling a huge amount the past years, meeting the public, doing readings or presentations. The time that being a bookmaker meant sitting behind your drawing or writing table seems so far behind us. I equally enjoy all the meetings with the public as much as sitting behind my desk. It keeps me balanced. 

© Carll Cneut. Image from Een miljoen vlinders (One million butterflies), reproduced with permission. Click to see larger image.

Playing by the book: I’ve read that your first name came about possibly by accident – your father added an extra “l” when he went to register your birth. What role (if any) do accidents play in your illustrations? I’ve heard other illustrators say that key details in their work are sometimes the result of an accident (and how this is perhaps becoming less common as more illustrators move to the computer); your work, however, seems painstaking and precise, without room for “mishaps”.

Carll Cneut: I’ve always believed that there are 2 kinds of book illustrators, one type who works from the heart, and the other one who constructs books from the mind. Both are equally valuable, but I definitely belong to the second category. I construct. So coincidence rarely happens, as everything is decided whilst making the dummy of the book. I don’t have the natural ability of drawing easily, so I work with several layers whilst drawing, to bring al the different elements together in the final illustration.

That said, coincidences do happen whilst painting, like finding a new way to paint, or having different brands of paint conflicting with each other  bringing a weird effect to the result. A good example of a coincidence in my work are the backdrops in the book ‘Het geheim van de keel van de nachtegaal’ (The secret of the nightingale’s throat ) where I needed a Chinese inspired feel to the book. I created the backgrounds by dragging different layers of paint with an old piece of board over the paper, which was an accidental find whilst cleaning my working table.

And I do love the sense and smell of the material, the white scary paper before starting an illustration. I would miss it too much if I moved to the computer. 

© Carll Cneut. Image from Het geheim van de keel van de nachtegaal (The secret of the nightingale’s throat ), reproduced with permission. Click to see larger image.

Playing by the book: Even though your work is meticulous and has the quality of “fine art”, you enjoy leaving it somehow “unfinished”, to create a space for viewers to add their own contribution. Was this aspect of your work something you consciously worked on, or is it something that has become apparent by itself over time? I guess this is a lead in to asking how do you think illustrators can and do develop their own style – and how do you discuss / teach this, in your current role as a teacher of illustration at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent?

Carll Cneut: It is something I always have found very important as I always believed a picture book should leave room for interpretation by the reader. A reader who should actively participate and be part of the book. I try to drag the reader into the book. A good example is the first illustration in my book Willy. On the first page you see a piece of a trunk and two feet, and no background. It is a human reflex to complete the drawing in your own head. Everyone sees an elephant, although he isn’t shown.

It is like drawing without a pencil. At that moment the reader becomes the third maker of the book. I also try to create the same demand to contribute through many other things, like often only showing the main characters in profile, but having their emotions shown through how they hold their bodies, so the reader enters into this character to imagine the facial expression. Or by spending time on the outfits of the characters, working through many layers of paint to give the clothes some life and history, so the reader should wonder why the character might wear these specific clothes, and why the clothes don’t look brand new, leaving space for the reader to imagine where this character comes from, how his life was before he ended up in this book etc… Or by adding little stories in the illustrations which have nothing to do with the main story. The funny thing is that children notice these extra little stories very quickly, whilst adults almost never notice them

I think the most important thing I can teach my students about book illustration is ‘everything which isn’t written in the text, is the freedom of the illustrator’. Of course everything should correspond correctly with the written story, but there is so much freedom which can be used to make the book more interesting, or more layered. As for developing their personal graphic style, that is a matter of thorough research of materials and their use, and of course some luck too. 

Playing by the book: We’re lucky at home because we read your books published both in English and in Dutch. Do you think the books of yours available in English are representative of your work in general? Which of your books not available in English would you like to see translated?

Carll Cneut: I would have loved for “Het geheim van de keel an de nachtegaal” (The secret of the nightingale’s throat) to be translated, but I guess it is an a-typical book, in the sense that it is much more text than a regular picture book, and aimed at older children. I also did a book called Dulle Griet, where the story is based on the painting De Dulle Griet by Breughel. It has an entirely black cover, and the story talks about hell, and the devil , and even death. I am aware that this book would cause a scandal in the UK, but it might initiate a discussion about the use of children’s books, in these times where we have to box up against the digital world. I also should say that children only pick up from this book what they are able to assume, so most kids don’t pick up on the suicide thing, they just think the monsters and skeletons in the book are very cool But that said, Belgian picture books are aimed at slightly older children then they are in general in the UK.

I really would love to see “Een Miljoen Vlinders” (One million butterflies) translated into English. 

© Carll Cneut. Image from Een miljoen vlinders (One million butterflies), reproduced with permission. Click to see larger image.

Playing by the book: Can you share some of your experience about how children’s publishing is different in the UK and/or US as opposed to Belgium? What sort of thing works well in the UK, but not in Belgium?

Carll Cneut: I feel the biggest difference is the approach towards picture books. In Belgium we have this huge array of different graphic styles, and themes . Heavy subjects are not avoided; subjects which are often unthinkable in other countries (like death, or suicide etc). A lot has to do with the fact that picture books are aimed at slightly older children than they are in the UK. But – and I am not sure about this - also to the fact that books are often used here [in Belgium] to initiate a discussion with children, raising questions for children, rather than simply being bedtime stories.

Carll Cneut at a school event. © Carll Cneut.

Playing by the book: When you started doing shows about your work, you surprised yourself with how much you yourself enjoyed them. Can you tell us a little about what you’ll be doing at your Children’s Bookshow event? How does the show work, what do you do with the children who attend? Is there anything you’d like attending children to have done in advance of coming to one of your shows to “get them in the mood”?

Carll Cneut: For the moment I think I will mainly work with the energy of the crowd, not knowing where I will end up. But one thing is sure, the whole show will be worked around three books of mine which I will show and read aloud: Ten Moonstruck Piglets, Willy, One Million Butterflies.

Playing by the book: What are you working on at the moment? Another collaborative work? More costume design? What’s your next book to be published in English and/or any language?

Carll Cneut: At the moment I am working with a young Italian writer on a picture book, called ‘The Golden Birdcage’, a story about a cruel princess who collects birds. As for the English/US market, most likely it will be “One Million Butterflies”, but I do have to stress that that is still unsure for the moment. As for other languages: De Blauwe Vogel (The blue bird) and Fluit zoals je bent (Whistle as you are) are shortly coming up in Italian and French, along with a few other languages. 

© Carll Cneut. Image from De Blauwe Vogel (The blue bird), reproduced with permission. Click to see larger image.

Playing by the book: Thank you Carll, I hope you have a great time this year on the Children’s Bookshow.

Find out more about the The Children’s Bookshow here. Anybody can book tickets for any of the events, and schools can also book free workshops with the authors and illustrators taking part in the tour.

So I’m back online! And I’ve so much to tell you about…

So yes, I was offline because I was away visiting family in the Netherlands. This is where we were for most of the time:

This is the haul of books I brought back:

My favourite book of all those I brought back is Overzee (literally “Oversea”) by Annemarie van Haeringen, Tonke Dragt, and Sjoerd Kuyper. It’s a collection of three very short, modern myths, each linked by the sea. The first is about a pelican who rescues a boy lost in a storm, the second is about Noah’s ark, unicorns and narwhals, and the third is about the source of the sea – where indeed does it begin? Each story is magical and word perfect. You won’t be able to finish this book without your heart contracting a little at its verbal and visual beauty. I do hope that one day it will be translated into English. The stories are timeless.

On holiday M fell deeply in love with the Belgian comic series Suske and Wiske (variously translated in to English as Bob and Bobette, Wanda and Willy and, most recently Spike and Suzy). This strip was created by Willy Vandersteen and first published in 1945 (there are now over 300 books!). It features two children who get up to all sorts of adventures, some fantasy, some historical, some science fiction, and has a look not dissimilar to the most famous comic from Belgium – Tintin.

Whilst away I read a brilliant Dutch children’s book Crusade in Jea