A first for 25
David Almond is one of our very finest living writers for young people - and quite possibly for anyone else too.
Although Skellig is probably by far his best known and most popular novel, it is a long way from being his only great work. Admirers of Skellig who have not explored his many other titles are missing out on some wonderful, groundbreaking, life-enhancing (and hugely enjoyable) reads.
However, this 25th Anniversary edition of Skellig is something very special indeed. And what distinguishes it most particularly from earlier editions is the new art work by Tom de Freston. It is, in fact the first time this seminal novel has been illustrated throughout - and the result is just stunning.
Whose images?
Like, I suspect, a good many other people, I do not always want my own imagination, conjured by the written word, to be coloured or even overridden by illustration. This is perhaps particularly so for a novel I already know well. Before seeing this new volume, I might well have said this applied to Skellig. But I now I have no such qualms. This artist’s new additions are nothing but pure enhancement.
It was Tom de Freston who recently provided the breathtaking images for Julia and the Shark and Leila and the Blue Fox by Kiren Milwood Hargrave. He is no less brilliant here. His illustrations detract little from the reader’s own imagination, but they most certainly serve to feed it. Intriguingly enigmatic, like the story, they are are often suggestive of characters and scenes rather that explicitly depicting them. They capture mood and emotion, suspense and jeopardy through simple but intensely expressive figures, often silhouetted or part-illuminated against dramatic splashes and slashes of light across darkness. Sometimes even light from darkness! Simplicity, almost crudeness, is their keynote, but it is such a sophisticated simplicity. I love the protruding legs and feet that provide the header for Chapter One, but am even more awed that this image is repeated in different forms through many of the early pages of the narrative, when so much is about exploring things as yet only partially perceived.
Threads and themes
In fact, Tom de Freston does a brilliant job of echoing the iterative images that David Almond threads through this wondrous story, pointing and reinforcing his themes and developments. Here are the many birds, nests and fledglings, depicted in nature and as Mina’s drawings, all speaking of wings and potential flight. I was also delighted by the way that dandelions appear and reappear on several pages; I found the spontaneous, vibrant capture of the plants’ ephemeral seed ‘clocks’ somehow very touching.
The artist’s images here are always perfectly in tune with the text, whilst adding whole new dimensions of their own. Their impact extends far beyond the flat page and haunts the deep recesses of the reader’s being. They are examples of the sort of work that make the description ‘illustrations’ seem far too small. They are book art, and Tom de Freston is now co-creator with the brilliant David Almond of a truly classic work.
Credit is also due to whoever redesigned the new typography and page layout of this edition, integrating images and text into such an impactful whole.
The one to have
There was a 15th Anniversary Edition of Skellig, but this 25th commemorative is the one to have, not because it is the latest, but because of Tom de Freston’s haunting images, combined with outstanding design and production. I think anyone who already fondly owns an edition of Skellig will want to see this one too. Anyone thinking of getting one could not find a better. And if there are still (young) readers out there who have not yet encountered this strange, disturbing, glorious, moving novel there could not be a better edition with which to start. (And then do yourself a huge favour and read more of David Almond’s books too.)
Note: At the end of this edition is an interesting new Afterword by the author, together with a brief extract from his much later novel, Mina. Here the girl from Skellig tells her own story. It would make a brilliant follow-up, as well as hopefully opening doors into his other highly original work.