Chris Riddell

And that's something I did with the Chronicles of Narnia.

When I was a student, I illustrated it because I loved Pauline Baines's illustrations in the original C.S.

Lewis texts.

Once I'd left art school, I remember having published a few books.

I was invited to a rather

grand party put on by Penguin, the publishers, in Lord Leighton's extraordinary sort of neoclassical house in Holland Park.

It was, you know, a great venue for a party.

I was walking up the stairs.

I'd arrived a little late to this party and I was walking up the stairs and coming down towards me was Pauline Baines, the illustrator of Narnia.

And I'm ashamed to say I

absolutely had a fanboy moment and I accosted this poor woman on the stairs and poured out my appreciation of her work while she looked a little bit alarmed and wondering who this young man was and she was very gracious and accepted my sort of huge effusive praise and then went on her way but that was one of my wonderful memories was to have met one of my great heroes and so I

I've never had the temerity, I think, to illustrate Narnia since then.

And yet, that possibly would be my desert island illustration project, to illustrate Narnia.

I think inevitably it does.

And I think there is this extraordinary thing called the mind's eye.

And it's the images that words conjure up in the imagination of readers as they read descriptive passages or even the way the sentence is, you know, sort of composed on a page can create a mood and create an atmosphere.

And as an illustrator, what I don't want to do is photobomb the reader's mind's eye.

I don't want to be, you know, step in front and say, I think you'll find this is who this character looks like.

So one's got to sort of

As an illustrator, I think learn almost a cadence, which is don't get in the way.