Unicorns! Unicorns!

From the opening paragraph the reader knows s/he is in the hands of a supreme storyteller: as 'the thunder clapped and the lightning cheered', the unicorns made their way towards the ark. But, though mindful of the urgency of the summons, each time they find an animal in distress they stop to help and with anguishing inevitability, it is they who are left behind. But they are not lost, they live on: 'their children prance on the wavetops, buck, and rear and dance and leap.' Seemingly, each word of this almost unbearably poignant rendition of the Old Testament flood story has been weighed for its effect. Windham's glorious paintings powerfully evoke the themes of the flood legend - retribution, deluge, chaos and in the aftermath, escape, survival, renewal and hope. She uses wonderful borders to enclose some of her illustrations while others provide horizontal or vertical frames for the text - a text that is always enclosed - creating a perfect unity which is much more than the sum of its separate parts. Indeed, each spread in itself is worthy of mention but for me, the most powerful is that of the rainbow of angels' wings arching over the swirling waves in which the unicorns are carried.