Axel Scheffler loves to put writers in the picture. This month the Gruffalo illustrator comes to Barnes. Miranda Thompson pencils in the date...
It’s 25 years since The Gruffalo was unleashed on the world: a tale dreamt up by the children’s writer Julia Donaldson and brought to life by illustrator Axel Scheffler.
The rhyming story of a mouse who takes a walk through a “deep dark wood”, and of the eye-popping creature it encounters, has become a modern classic. Recently found most likely to be a British child’s first book, it has sold more than 11.5 million copies worldwide since its publication in March 1999.
Yet, it all could have been so different. The first Gruffalo sketches, featuring those “terrible tusks and terrible claws”, that Axel submitted upon receipt of Julia’s words – “a one-stroke masterpiece”, is how he describes the text – were deemed too scary by publishers. Like it or not, he had to rework them.
“It was quite a struggle,” recalls the 66-year-old Richmond resident.
So why does he think that the Gruffalo is so beloved?
The Gruffalo!’”
Donaldson and Scheffler were a dynamite duo years before The Gruffalo arrived on the scene. They first joined forces back in 1993 on A Squash and A Squeeze – a tale of a little old lady who lives by herself – after a publisher brought them together. Not until after the book was out, at a publishing party, did they meet for the very first time.
In fact, every one of the pair’s 25 joint books – other family favourites include The Snail and the Whale and Room on the Broom – is the sum of their separate labours. While Julia works from her house in Sussex, Axel beavers away “under the roof” of his Richmond home.
“We meet regularly, but we don’t work on books together,” he says. Instead, Julia sends over her words, before Axel sets about bringing her vision to life on the page.
“I always have to rely on someone writing a text,” he explains. “Even for the lift-the-flap books that I do. I can’t make up a plot, I really can’t!”
After discussions with his editor and art director as to what the characters might look like, Axel will begin to sketch, working in traditional style.
“I use a dip pen to do the black outlines and then liquid watercolours and coloured pencils for the pictures. Everything is still done by hand – very old-fashioned.”
How does he know when an illustration is any good?
“I can’t judge that. I do my best, and sometimes I think: ‘Oh, this could still be better.’ But the publisher has deadlines and sometimes they’ll just take things away from me. Some pictures I’m happier with than others.”
The Donaldson-Scheffler partnership has been truly prolific, but in recent times the pace has slowed. A book every two years, perhaps, rather than the annual offering of old.
“Julia has done a lot with other people because she’s just faster at writing than I am at illustrating. She’s very productive. But then there’ll be a story where she thinks: ‘This is for Axel.’ So she sends it to the publisher who asks if I want it.”
Currently, he’s working on the latest in the Tales from Acorn Wood series. Even away from his collaboration with Julia, however, there’s “always something going on”.
“Lots of single jobs, like book covers, or maybe something that I’ll donate to charity,” he says.
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New projects
His project for the summer is a follow-up to a 2019 book called Kind, in which a host of top contributors illustrated ways in which children could demonstrate kindness. It was released to raise funds for the Three Peas charity, which supports refugees – Axel’s partner is involved with the charity, while Axel himself is a patron. The new book, Welcome, is intended to show children that “welcoming strangers is a good thing”.
Although he now calls Richmond home, Axel was born in Hamburg, Germany, before moving to the UK in 1982 to study visual communication at the Bath Academy of Art in Corsham, Wiltshire, “surrounded by sheep and peacocks”.
It was there that he decided to become an illustrator. Stints in Streatham and Blackheath followed, before his South London odyssey brought him to Richmond, 12 years ago, so that his daughter could be enrolled at The German School in Ham.
“It’s thanks to the Gruffalo that we can afford to live here!” he laughs. “I love everything about Richmond except the flight path. It’s so lovely to walk in the park, or Kew Gardens, and yet there’s also London nearby.”
For Axel, however, creative inspiration comes more from the imagination than his surroundings.
“If I’m drawing a tree, say, I often ask myself why I don’t go out into the park and see what trees really look like. But in the end, I usually just make them up.”
One local treasure which does inspire him, however, is the Barnes Children’s Literature Festival, at which he is to appear this month. Axel has attended every year since its inception in 2014 and especially loves its location. It is, he says, the only festival to which he can cycle.
“We don’t have a car, so we cycle everywhere,” he reveals.
During their forthcoming festival audience with Axel, young readers will be treated to live illustrations of some of his famous characters, as well as something special to take home.
“They get very excited,” he says. “I sign books – and I do a nice drawing in each one.”
Fostering creativity in children, indeed, is one of Axel’s passions: it’s why he supports the National Literacy Trust.
“The state should be doing more to teach the arts in schools,” he insists. “That whole thing of closing libraries – it’s scandalous. And it’s shocking how many children don’t own a single book, or even have access to books. Children are open to everything. Give them paper and pens; draw with them. If you do that, they usually enjoy it.”
In fact, he has the same advice for older budding illustrators too.
“I always say: ‘Draw a lot.’ Try out lots of different materials, different ways of drawing, collages. Look at all the ways in which professional illustrators have tackled making books. When I was a child I used to trace things. The main thing is simply to be curious.”
Sound encouragement for us all.
Axel Scheffler is at Barnes Children’s Literature Festival on June 22, 10-11am. For further information visit: barneskidslitfest.org. His latest book, Frog’s Day Out: A Lift-the-flap Story – Tales From Acorn Wood with Julia Donaldson (Macmillan Children’s Books, £7.99) is out now.
WIN! A family ticket to Barnes Children's Literature Festival
We have one family ticket to give away, for up to five people to enjoy events on one day of the festival. Plus a bundle of books by some of those appearing. To enter draw click here. Closing date June 14; T&Cs apply
