Quentin Blake is best known as a children’s books illustrator — his collaboration with Roald Dahl was an author-illustrator pairing as famous as Tenniel and Lewis Carroll — but his latest work for the Folio Society, illustrations for Fifty Fables of La Fontaine, is, he says, not one for children.
“I was told by one children’s publisher that some of the stories, especially the one about a man who falls in love with his cat, turns her into a human, and marries her, really wouldn’t be suitable,” he said at last night’s launch at the Institut Français. “The tales were originally intended for a general audience; children just happened to be there.”
And what would be his advice for parents who actually wanted their children to read the fables? “Tell them they’re banned,” Blake said cheerfully. “That should do it”. Alas, at £245 for each goatskin-bound copy, the chance would be a fine thing.
