MEET THE ILLUSTRATOR:
PAULINE BAYNES
Series title that features your work:
The Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis
Describe your work in 50 words or less:
The Chronicles of Narnia (The first book being The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe) were originally published in black and white in 1950-6.
I have now updated them in colour, hopefully fairly subtley and unchanged, as a celebration of the C.S. Lewis Centenary.
What has been the biggest influence on your work?
Firstly a brilliant elder sister -- and then the discovery of the simplicity of Anglo-Saxon books and the exquisite colour and line of Persian manuscripts -- finally illustrators like Edmund Dulac, Rex Whistler, and Arthur Rackham 'Job' and 'Dore.'
What was your favorite subject in school? Why?
Art -- because it was easy.
Who was your childhood hero?
Dr. Heinrich Hoffman who wrote and illustrated STUWEL PETER
Charlotte Bronte who wrote JANE EYRE
and Ernest Raymond who wrote TELL ENGLAND and answered my fan letter.
What books did you read as a child?
The first was called "The Nowadays and Everyday Fairy Book" written by Anna Alice Chapin and illustrated by Jessie Wilcox Smith -- I can remember the pictures vividly -- after 72 years!
Then anything and everything that came my way.
Do you illustrate other types of books? If so, what kinds?
Any kind that I am offered -- including educational books, a costume book -- even three cookery books, and my own.
If you could trade places with one extremely famous person for one day, who would it be and why?
It would have to be someone famous -- a prime minister, a president, even a TV personality -- so that I could air my views and change the world to my way of thinking!!
What message would you like to send to all children?
To look to the past for culture and inspiration.
Pauline Baynes is the original illustrator of C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia series. The year The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (and Baynes's illustrations) celebrates its 50th anniversary.
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