Oscar Wilde’s Stories for Children, Illustrated by Lauren O’Hara

We welcome Lauren O’Hara to the blog today answering a few questions about her latest project, Oscar Wilde’s Stories for Children. It’s a fantastic collection of popular stories brought to a new generation of reader!

 

 

Why did you choose this collection of stories? What appealed about Oscar  Wilde?  

I grew up with Wilde’s fairytales and have thought many times about  illustrating an edition, so when Little Island approached me about a new  edition, it was a very early ‘yes’.  

We decided to include the most well-known stories such as The Happy Prince  and The Selfish Giant, as well as some of Wilde’s lesser known, but no less  wonderful works like ‘the Devoted Friend’ and ‘The Young King’.  

The illustrations are wondrous and fit so well with each story – how long did it  take to illustrate the book? How did you create the images?  

Thank you so much!  

I had around 9 months to illustrate the collection, and I found out I was  pregnant right as I started work, so my deadline suddenly became very tight; I  handed in the book about 3 days before my daughter, Theodora, was born.  

 I work in traditional media: a mix of gouache, watercolours and inks. With this  project I painted onto tinted paper which was a new technique for me. I really  like that laying down a colour before you start painting creates a mood before  you even start painting. For example, in A Devoted Friend, the story of a tragic  imbalance of power in a friendship, I used acrid yellow paper for a pretty  garden scene, which gave the illustration an unsettling mood.  

Did you have a favourite story from this collection?  

I have a very special place in my heart for The Happy Prince, I grew up with  an edition my mum had brought with her when she fled the Soviet invasion of  Czechoslovakia in 1968, aged 14. She packed her book instead of her winter  coat.  

She told me that her mum, my grandmother, had read it aloud to her as a little  girl. Like me, she was spellbound by the story.  

She said that my grandmother told her, “You’ll discover that as you grow  bigger, the story will grow bigger with you.” 

That sounded impossibly magical, but my mum insisted that she’d discovered  it was true. And as I grew up, I found out she was right. It was my first  introduction to the supernatural power of books. 

What do you hope children will take from reading the stories?  

Wilde’s Fairytales are still so timely, and I think there’s a lot that can be taken  from them for both children and adults. They’re stories about the importance  of kindness, resisting the cruelty of the powerful, friendship, betrayal, the  power of love, all themes that a modern audience can take a lot  

Have you any other stories you would like to illustrate?  

I’m currently cooking up another collection of very exciting short stories with  Little Island for publication in 2027, so watch this space!

 

 

Views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the Federation.