Witchfairy

Fairies always have to be sweet, nice and kind. Which is why Rosemary thinks fairies are terribly boring. And the worst of it is that she’s a fairy herself. Rosemary would rather be a witch, because witches can get lovely and dirty and shout and laugh and take a boat out on the stream. She goes to live in the witches’ wood and learns all kinds of witchy ways. Mum thinks Rosemary will soon be back but she’s wrong. Bit by bit, Rosemary convinces her that even as a fairy you can have a different kind of life.

To celebrate his twentieth anniversary as an illustrator, Carll Cneut has created new illustrations for this popular picture book, first published in 1999. These pictures are suffused with a fairy-tale atmosphere, in all shades of pink and red. The static images at the beginning of the book, featuring well-behaved little fairies in pink dresses, evolve into a more dynamic and powerful Rosemary as a dramatically pink figure among the dark colours of the witches’ wood. Cneut also focuses on the consequences of Rosemary’s wishes, which make her an outsider in the closed community of the fairies. As in his earlier work, Cneut pays a lot of attention to expression. Once again, the detailed finish, right down to the smallest elements, is remarkable.