{"id":76227,"date":"2014-09-03T12:07:19","date_gmt":"2014-09-03T16:07:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=76227"},"modified":"2014-09-03T12:44:12","modified_gmt":"2014-09-03T16:44:12","slug":"inside-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/09\/03\/inside-stories\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside Stories"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Quentin Blake at the House of Illustration.<\/em><\/p>\n<script>\/* <![CDATA[ *\/ portfolio_slideshow.slideshows[691] = {\"timeout\":\"4000\",\"autoplay\":\"false\",\"trans\":\"fade\",\"loop\":\"true\",\"speed\":\"400\",\"nowrap\":\"true\"}; \/* ]]> *\/<\/script><div id=\"slideshow-wrapper691\" class=\"slideshow-wrapper clearfix portfolio-slideshow-centered\">\n<div id=\"slideshow-nav691\" class=\"slideshow-nav\">\n\t<a class=\"pause\" style=\"display:none\" href=\"javascript:void(0);\">Pause<\/a>\n\t<a class=\"play\" href=\"javascript:void(0);\">Play<\/a>\n\t<a 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class=\"slideshow-next\" href=\"javascript:void(0)\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"psp-active\" data-img=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/lp90a_089-danny-c-qb-1997.jpg\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" height=\"600\" width=\"479\" alt=\"Slide 4\"><\/a>\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-next slideshow-content not-first\">\n\t\t<a class=\"slideshow-next\" href=\"javascript:void(0)\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"psp-active\" data-img=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/quentin-blake-inside-stories.jpg\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" height=\"377\" width=\"600\" alt=\"Slide 5\"><\/a>\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-next slideshow-content not-first\">\n\t\t<a class=\"slideshow-next\" href=\"javascript:void(0)\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"psp-active\" data-img=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/lp122a007-sad-book-c-qb-2004.jpg\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" height=\"600\" width=\"538\" alt=\"Slide 6\"><\/a>\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-next slideshow-content not-first\">\n\t\t<a class=\"slideshow-next\" href=\"javascript:void(0)\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"psp-active\" data-img=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/lp10004-capt-najork-c-qb-1974.jpg\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" height=\"600\" width=\"546\" alt=\"Slide 7\"><\/a>\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-next slideshow-content not-first\">\n\t\t<a class=\"slideshow-next\" href=\"javascript:void(0)\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"psp-active\" data-img=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/lp40025-dancing-frog-c-qb-1984.jpg\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" height=\"600\" width=\"503\" alt=\"Slide 8\"><\/a>\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-next slideshow-content not-first\">\n\t\t<a class=\"slideshow-next\" href=\"javascript:void(0)\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"psp-active\" data-img=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/lp79018-clown-c-qb-1995.jpg\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" height=\"600\" width=\"522\" alt=\"Slide 9\"><\/a>\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-next slideshow-content not-first\">\n\t\t<a class=\"slideshow-next\" href=\"javascript:void(0)\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"psp-active\" data-img=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/sp46b_23-twits-c-qb-2010.jpg\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" height=\"600\" width=\"418\" alt=\"Slide 10\"><\/a>\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-next slideshow-content not-first\">\n\t\t<a class=\"slideshow-next\" href=\"javascript:void(0)\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"psp-active\" data-img=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/sp162-p75-the-boy-in-the-dress-c-qb-2008.jpg\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" height=\"600\" width=\"595\" alt=\"Slide 11\"><\/a>\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-next slideshow-content not-first\">\n\t\t<a class=\"slideshow-next\" href=\"javascript:void(0)\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"psp-active\" data-img=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/sp173_005-candide-c-qb-2011.jpg\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" height=\"600\" width=\"514\" alt=\"Slide 12\"><\/a>\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"slideshow-meta\">\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<p class=\"slideshow-caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<p class=\"slideshow-caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<p class=\"slideshow-caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<p class=\"slideshow-caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<p class=\"slideshow-caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<p class=\"slideshow-caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<p class=\"slideshow-caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<p class=\"slideshow-caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<p class=\"slideshow-caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<p class=\"slideshow-caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<p class=\"slideshow-caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<p class=\"slideshow-caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n<\/div><\/div><!--#slideshow-wrapper-->\n<p>Located somewhat improbably behind King\u2019s Cross St. Pancras, the thrumming London tube and train stations, is the cheery <a href=\"http:\/\/www.houseofillustration.org.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\">House of Illustration<\/a>, which opened in early July. The path leading to it is lined with illustrated panels, a showcase of the visual treasures to come: advertisements and poster art, medical and botanical sketches, children\u2019s books and fashion illustrations. The center\u2019s present exhibition, \u201cInside Stories,\u201d features original work by the beloved illustrator <a href=\"http:\/\/www.quentinblake.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Quentin Blake<\/a>, one of the House\u2019s trustees and now an octogenarian, whose drawings have enchanted young readers for nearly half a century.<\/p>\n<p>Blake is perhaps best known for his work with Roald Dahl, but no matter who he\u2019s collaborating with, his illustrations retain a buoyant, often impish air. His first drawings were published in the magazine\u00a0<em>Punch<\/em>\u00a0when he was still in high school. He began illustrating children&#8217;s books in 1960, and taught for more than twenty years at the Royal College of Art. Since the nineties, he\u2019s worked as exhibition curator, and has more recently created larger-scale works for health care wards and communal spaces.<\/p>\n<p>Claudia Zeff, a publishing industry art director who has spent twenty years designing book jackets, curated \u201cInside Stories.\u201d Zeff\u2019s collaborative process with Blake was already comfortable\u2014the two have worked together for more than a decade. The ideas for the exhibition \u201cevolved quite gradually,\u201d Zeff said. \u201cQuentin came up with the idea of using the story behind the books as the theme \u2026 and expressed the different approaches\/techniques he uses to illustrate to different types of narrative.\u201d <!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The three-room exhibition shows Blake\u2019s creations in progressive stages of completion\u2014first roughs, storyboards, and finished work\u2014to demonstrate how ideas evolved in a medley of pencils, inks, watercolors, and pastels. The last gallery is wholly dedicated to the\u00a0manuscript for\u00a0<em>Michael Rosen\u2019s Sad Book<\/em>, which delves into the author\u2019s life after the death of his eighteen-year-old son, Eddie. The book is a plainspoken, heartbreaking attempt to deal with grief. \u201cReally,\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0being\u00a0sad but\u00a0pretending\u00a0I&#8217;m happy,\u201d Rosen writes. \u201cSometimes sad is very big. It\u2019s everywhere. All over me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Between the colorful introductory gallery and the tender finish are visual snippets of nine sets of illustrations. As Simon Schama, extolling Quentin Blake\u2019s \u201cperfectly economical stroke\u201d in his June 2014 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ft.com\/intl\/cms\/s\/2\/e15749d2-f1ba-11e3-a2da-00144feabdc0.html\" target=\"_blank\">piece<\/a> for the <em>Financial Times<\/em>, noted, \u201chis paintings and drawings at their strongest are not just auxiliaries of a text but integral to it, a full partner in the creative play between word and image.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The cast of characters is delightful. A glint of amphibious green soars above ballerinas mid-performance in <em>The Story of the Dancing Frog<\/em>. In Russell Hoban\u2019s <em>How Tom Beat Captain Najork and His Hired Sportsmen<\/em>, the mustachioed dapper Captain Najork commandeers a four-man crew who power a Victorian-inspired foot-motor boat in matching red-and-white <em>marini\u00e8res<\/em>. Nearby are Blake\u2019s illustrations for Voltaire\u2019s\u00a0<em>Candide<\/em>: the titular young Frenchman, his \u201ctrusty\u201d Dr. Pangloss, and glimpses from the procession of dogmatic encounters, all imbued with mirth and the macabre.<\/p>\n<p>And of course there are the Twits, Roald Dahl\u2019s crusty, grizzled duo\u2014one of two collaborations with Dahl displayed here. (The other is <em>Danny the Champion of the World<\/em>.) Blake and Dahl began to work together in 1977, on Dahl\u2019s first illustrated book, <em>The Enormous Crocodile<\/em>, followed by <em>The BFG<\/em>, images of which were used on a set of four stamps issued by the Royal Mail in 2012. The two collaborated until Dahl\u2019s death in 1990.<\/p>\n<p>Among the sundry drawings, the work that feels most representative of Blake, according to Zeff, is the book <em>Clown<\/em>. \u201cHe originally conceived the book with words, and then realized it would work better with just pictures\u2014even the speech bubbles only have pictures\u2014and that the Clown would follow the tradition of the French mime, Pierrot.\u00a0Quentin often says that he thinks of the double page spread as a stage, and delights in the fact that he is able to be director, set designer and play all the parts when he is illustrating a story.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201dInside Stories\u201d runs through November 2 at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.houseofillustration.org.uk\" target=\"_blank\">the House of Illustration<\/a>, 2 Granary Square, King\u2019s Cross London N1C 4BH.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SarahMoroz\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Sarah Moroz<\/em><\/a> <em>is a freelance cultural journalist\u00a0and translator based in Paris. <a href=\"http:\/\/sarahmoroz.tumblr.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Her work<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><em>has appeared in<\/em> The New York Times, The Guardian, <em>and <\/em>Publishers Weekly<em>, amongst other publications.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Quentin Blake at the House of Illustration. Located somewhat improbably behind King\u2019s Cross St. Pancras, the thrumming London tube and train stations, is the cheery House of Illustration, which opened in early July. The path leading to it is lined with illustrated panels, a showcase of the visual treasures to come: advertisements and poster art, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":744,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2384],"tags":[3618,15165,15162,2783,1050,15164,15161,1143,15163],"class_list":["post-76227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-look","tag-childrens-books","tag-claudia-zeff","tag-house-of-illustration","tag-illustrations","tag-london","tag-michael-rosen","tag-quentin-blake","tag-roald-dahl","tag-united-kingdom"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Inside Stories by Sarah Moroz<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"September 3, 2014 \u2013 Quentin Blake at the House of Illustration. 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Located somewhat improbably behind King\u2019s Cross St. Pancras, the thrumming London tube and train stations, is\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/09\/03\/inside-stories\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-09-03T16:07:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-09-03T16:44:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sarah Moroz\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sarah Moroz\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/09\/03\/inside-stories\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/09\/03\/inside-stories\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sarah Moroz\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/67b78e640223ca0c778f12adef8f48ef\"},\"headline\":\"Inside Stories\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-09-03T16:07:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-09-03T16:44:12+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/09\/03\/inside-stories\/\"},\"wordCount\":738,\"commentCount\":3,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"children's books\",\"Claudia Zeff\",\"House of Illustration\",\"illustrations\",\"London\",\"Michael Rosen\",\"Quentin Blake\",\"Roald Dahl\",\"United Kingdom\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Look\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/09\/03\/inside-stories\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/09\/03\/inside-stories\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/09\/03\/inside-stories\/\",\"name\":\"Inside Stories by Sarah Moroz\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-09-03T16:07:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-09-03T16:44:12+00:00\",\"description\":\"September 3, 2014 \u2013 Quentin Blake at the House of Illustration. 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