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The Quentin Blake Book
A fascinating, fully illustrated overview of the life and work of one of the world’s best-loved illustrators, Quentin Blake, celebrating more than seventy years of work that has redefined illustration.
Familiar to both young and old, Quentin Blake’s entertaining and lively artworks are full of characters that have amused and inspired generations of readers. He is best-known for his collaborations on children’s books, including those written by Michael Rosen, John Yeoman, Russell Hoban, and, most famously, Roald Dahl.
An artist for seven decades, Blake’s first drawings were published in Punch when he was just sixteen. He has also illustrated literary classics such as A Christmas Carol, Candide, and Don Quixote, and in the last twenty years, Blake has extended his practice to large-scale works for hospitals, libraries, and public spaces. He has received numerous prizes and awards for his illustration work, including the Whitbread Award, the Kate Greenaway Medal, and the international Bologna Ragazzi Award. In 1999, he was appointed the United Kingdom’s first-ever Children’s Laureate; he has won the Hans Christian Andersen Award for Illustration, the highest international recognition given to creators of children’s books; and he has been awarded a knighthood for “services to illustration.”
A unique celebration of the illustrator’s art to date, this beautiful collection guides the reader through Blake’s extraordinary body of work. Seventy years of the artist’s drawings and illustrations of enormous diversity are represented―including recent unpublished work―alongside text by distinguished writer and illustration specialist Jenny Uglow, with commentary by Blake himself. An insightful overview, profusely illustrated with images specially selected in consultation with the artist, The Quentin Blake Book commemorates his life’s work and showcases the wide-ranging and personal nature of his art.
300 color illustrations
Familiar to both young and old, Quentin Blake’s entertaining and lively artworks are full of characters that have amused and inspired generations of readers. He is best-known for his collaborations on children’s books, including those written by Michael Rosen, John Yeoman, Russell Hoban, and, most famously, Roald Dahl.
An artist for seven decades, Blake’s first drawings were published in Punch when he was just sixteen. He has also illustrated literary classics such as A Christmas Carol, Candide, and Don Quixote, and in the last twenty years, Blake has extended his practice to large-scale works for hospitals, libraries, and public spaces. He has received numerous prizes and awards for his illustration work, including the Whitbread Award, the Kate Greenaway Medal, and the international Bologna Ragazzi Award. In 1999, he was appointed the United Kingdom’s first-ever Children’s Laureate; he has won the Hans Christian Andersen Award for Illustration, the highest international recognition given to creators of children’s books; and he has been awarded a knighthood for “services to illustration.”
A unique celebration of the illustrator’s art to date, this beautiful collection guides the reader through Blake’s extraordinary body of work. Seventy years of the artist’s drawings and illustrations of enormous diversity are represented―including recent unpublished work―alongside text by distinguished writer and illustration specialist Jenny Uglow, with commentary by Blake himself. An insightful overview, profusely illustrated with images specially selected in consultation with the artist, The Quentin Blake Book commemorates his life’s work and showcases the wide-ranging and personal nature of his art.
300 color illustrations
- GenresArtNonfiction
256 pages, Hardcover
Published November 15, 2022
About the author
Jenny Uglow
51 books146 followersJennifer Sheila Uglow OBE (née Crowther, born 1947) is a British biographer, critic and publisher. The editorial director of Chatto & Windus, she has written critically acclaimed biographies of Elizabeth Gaskell, William Hogarth, Thomas Bewick and the Lunar Society, among others, and has also compiled a women's biographical dictionary.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 20, 2023
5 stelline anche solo per i disegni (anche perché il testo scritto è più una disamina “storica” e commento alle illustrazione).
W Quentin Blake e W Roald Dahl!
W Quentin Blake e W Roald Dahl!
October 7, 2024
One of our values on reading is that “Librarians are doctors of the mind.” I can’t tell you how many books Sarah Ramsey of Book City gave me that twisted my heart the right way at the right time. (I talk to her about this here.) So I was delighted to see a massive “Staff Picks” wall at the down-the-ramp front entrance of the High Park branch of the Toronto Public Library. It was like a wall of vitamins! My eyes were drawn to the pink sticky note saying “Rebeca’s Pick I loved learning about this artist whose work is known often by his partnership with Roald Dahl.” Quentin Blake! Yes! Right! Kevin the Bookseller threw that particular vitamin down my throat back in Chapter 44 at the Indigo bookstore he runs at Mount Sinai hospital. Rebeca is right, though. This book is the stories behind the drawings behind the stories. And the Dahl stuff is just one chapter! The book expands and colors in the now-91-years of genius that is Quentin Blake. From his early Punch magazine covers to nude sketches and self-portraits to giant hospital walls and darker illustrations he did to support the migrant refugee crisis. His humanitarian work was completely unknown to me and it’s beautiful. A couple years ago I stumbled on a dog-chewed dark brown hardcover first edition of ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at The Monkey’s Paw (a must-visit bookstore if you’re in Toronto, which features the world’s first Biblio-Mat!) Incredible find, right? But when I flipped through it I realized I could never love it. It didn’t have Quentin Blake’s drawings. Seriously. This book is a succulent and engaging deep-dive into the life and work of an unstoppable artistic master. Highly recommended. (P.S. Quentin is 91 today and still drawing. If you want to experience delight I suggest you check out the gallery on his website. I wish I had a nursery to decorate with this one!)
September 5, 2026
What a charming man. The joy of drawing is SO present in every page and every stroke. It's been delightful to read more about his career.
October 21, 2023
Recensione a cura della pagina instagram Pagine_e_inchiostro:
Il libro di Quentin Blake é una panoramica sulla carriera di uno dei più celebri illustratori per bambini dei nostri tempi. Oltre a contenere i suoi bozzetti, dalle origini ad oggi, il libro racconta anche l’ispirazione e le tappe fondamentali che hanno segnato la sua professione.
Le prime Illustrazioni sono quasi tutte in bianco e nero, o al massimo in bicromia. Dal 1968 Quentin aggiunge acquerelli, inchiostro colorato o pastelli a cera: osservando le sue creazioni, le forme si animano davanti agli occhi del lettore. Ed é così che prende vita il mondo di Blake, che riesce a divertire gli adulti ed incantare i bambini.
Nelle sue storie i personaggi trovano modi originali per cavarsela in situazioni difficili, oppure vivono allegre e chiassose avventure in luoghi insospettabili. Le sue storie hanno anche a che fare con personaggi che vivono emozioni umane reali, che soffrono o che patiscono la solitudine.
Che siano spensierate o agrodolci, le sue storie rimangono un omaggio all’infanzia, all’amicizia, alla spensieratezza, al tempo perduto e all’immaginazione.
Dalla collaborazione con scrittori leggendari del calibro di Roald Dahl, fino ai lavori umanitari negli spazi pubblici e negli ospedali, Blake non ha mai smesso di stupire con il suo infinito estro, incantando intere generazioni.
Questo libro incarna l’essenza di tutto il suo lavoro.
Unica piccola pecca: avrei voluto leggere qualche chicca sulla vita privata di Blake, che potesse svelarmi l’origine primaria della sua arte. Purtroppo questa parte risulta mancante, svelandoci solo un lato di un artista tanto multi sfaccettato.
Il libro di Quentin Blake é una panoramica sulla carriera di uno dei più celebri illustratori per bambini dei nostri tempi. Oltre a contenere i suoi bozzetti, dalle origini ad oggi, il libro racconta anche l’ispirazione e le tappe fondamentali che hanno segnato la sua professione.
Le prime Illustrazioni sono quasi tutte in bianco e nero, o al massimo in bicromia. Dal 1968 Quentin aggiunge acquerelli, inchiostro colorato o pastelli a cera: osservando le sue creazioni, le forme si animano davanti agli occhi del lettore. Ed é così che prende vita il mondo di Blake, che riesce a divertire gli adulti ed incantare i bambini.
Nelle sue storie i personaggi trovano modi originali per cavarsela in situazioni difficili, oppure vivono allegre e chiassose avventure in luoghi insospettabili. Le sue storie hanno anche a che fare con personaggi che vivono emozioni umane reali, che soffrono o che patiscono la solitudine.
Che siano spensierate o agrodolci, le sue storie rimangono un omaggio all’infanzia, all’amicizia, alla spensieratezza, al tempo perduto e all’immaginazione.
Dalla collaborazione con scrittori leggendari del calibro di Roald Dahl, fino ai lavori umanitari negli spazi pubblici e negli ospedali, Blake non ha mai smesso di stupire con il suo infinito estro, incantando intere generazioni.
Questo libro incarna l’essenza di tutto il suo lavoro.
Unica piccola pecca: avrei voluto leggere qualche chicca sulla vita privata di Blake, che potesse svelarmi l’origine primaria della sua arte. Purtroppo questa parte risulta mancante, svelandoci solo un lato di un artista tanto multi sfaccettato.
September 6, 2023
This is a beautiful, beautifully laid out book, an easy way to draw you into Blake's world and enjoy his art. Like many people, I mainly know Quentin Blake through his illustrations of Roald Dahl's books (and later, some of David Walliams' books). I loved so many of those illustrations, from the BFG to the Twits and Matilda. I remember Blake bringing to life how a "person with beautiful thoughts could never look truly ugly" - an idea of Dahl's but Blake really made it happen, and the amazing world of Revolting Rhymes and the sweetness of Matilda and the awfulness of the Twits.
It was then wonderful to go through this book and see so much more of Blake's work and see how he's worked with so much more material and styles. I loved looking at his Punch covers, his other illustrations, his work in a variety of media, his adult work. Most of all I love the cavorting freedom and imagination he displays.
I absolutely adored his work at the hospitals and it showed what a beautiful mind he has.
I would have LOVED to have had an illustration done by Blake!
What a talent and what creativity, this was a fantastic book and I gobbled it up greedily and now I want to gobble it up again. I would see a Quentin Blake exhibition if there was one around.
It was then wonderful to go through this book and see so much more of Blake's work and see how he's worked with so much more material and styles. I loved looking at his Punch covers, his other illustrations, his work in a variety of media, his adult work. Most of all I love the cavorting freedom and imagination he displays.
I absolutely adored his work at the hospitals and it showed what a beautiful mind he has.
I would have LOVED to have had an illustration done by Blake!
What a talent and what creativity, this was a fantastic book and I gobbled it up greedily and now I want to gobble it up again. I would see a Quentin Blake exhibition if there was one around.
March 15, 2023
A nice general overview of Blake's career. If, like me, you already own Words and Pictures, Beyond the Page, Pens Ink & Places, A Year of Drawings, and In The Theatre of the Imagination, there's not much new here.
November 18, 2024
A beautifully laid out book and a good overview of phases in his career. That said, I didn't get a great sense of Blake or where he fits in to the art movements of his era. It's a nice book for flicking but not an in depth analysis of the artist.
May 18, 2023
Quentin Blake is a wonderful presence in this world, there's not much more that needs to be said. A true gem
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews