Author/illustrator Lauren Child revisits a favourite John Burningham illustration
This is one of my favourite John Burningham artworks and books. What I really love about this picture is that you can so easily see John’s hand in the piece. He draws beautifully and there is the impression that he’s not just filling in. I think that there is a feeling that children’s book illustration is not quite art but this picture most definitely is art. There is the way he uses the paint, the layering of the paint and texture, and the delicacy of the line. You can see how he’s drawn the reflections on the wet sand and the details of the pebbles. You feel that you know the beach. It looks like a Norfolk beach that I’ve been to.
What I love is also the way that the child is wistfully looking towards the sea. It’s so evocative and you feel that there is something really going on here in the child’s mind. It’s an image that really connects the reader and the person who is looking at the piece to what is going on for the child. It speaks volumes without words which is of course, the key to being a really great illustrator.
Lauren Child is the author of best-selling books and series including Charlie and Lola, Clarice Bean and Ruby Redfort. She was Children’s Laureate between 2017 and 2019 and awarded a CBE in 2020 for her work.She has been at the forefront of innovation in children’s books for over 15 years and has raised the profile of illustration as an artform for all ages. She’s worked with mixed media, pioneered text as an integral part of illustration and collaborated with artists across different fields.
Come away from the water, Shirley was first published by Jonathan Cape in 1977
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