As I copied that drawing, I knew that I wanted to be an illustrator when I grew up. My favourite was the white rabbit staring at his pocket watch. As a young child I was captured by Sir John Tenniel’s illustrations, and copied them, experimenting with dip pens and Indian ink to work out how he used cross-hatch shading so beautifully.
Outside I was duly given Where the Wild Things Are and, clutching it, I ran away to art school.Īlice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.
At 18, I chose it as my prize at my school speech day and the headmaster refused to hand it to me on stage, giving me a dusty copy of Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire from the school library. Sendak taught a generation of author-illustrators that simplicity and playfulness could also be profound. It is the perfect picture book, as fresh and beguiling now as the day it was written. Where the Wild Things Areby Maurice Sendak.
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