Irish Sagas & Folk Tales
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Cover Story
This issue’s cover is from the gift edition of Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory illustrated by Quentin Blake and with design and typography by Peter Campbell. The successful collaboration between Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake has played an important part in the popularity of Dahl’s work over the last fifteen years. Blake’s unmistakable artwork truly complements Dahl’s writing. His economical, amiable, illustrative style balances out Dahl’s often expansive language. And the liveliness, humour and pathos of the drawings offer a softer side to Dahl’s sometimes gloriously grotesque, sometimes cruel descriptions of his characters.
Thanks to Penguin Children’s Books for their help in producing this July cover which commemorates the thirty years anniversary of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’s first UK publication.
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Irish Sagas & Folk Tales
The myths, legends and folktales which constitute the vast body of material generally referred to as 'Irish folklore' continue to provide a rich resource for re-telling. In recent years these have become increasingly attractively produced, often with full colour illustrations, a fact which may make this edition of O'Faol$ain's versions (in spite of P J Lynch's new cover design) seem rather dated. First published some forty years ago, the book offers a selection of some of the best known of the ancient epic stories - 'The Children of Lir', 'The Fate of the Sons of Usnach', episodes from 'The Cattle Raid of Cooley' - together with some examples of what O'Faol$ain calls 'Tales for the Chimney-Corner', these being adapted, in the main, from originals first collected in the late nineteenth century. Even in re-tellings such as these, occasionally weakened by a flatness of tone and a pedestrian pace, the magic, romance and intrigue of these dramatic narratives remains.
