Illustrator Matthew Land has created a stunning cover treatment and beautiful interior illustrations for Mark Forsyth’s debut children’s fiction title, A Riddle for a King, an exciting adventure, filled with magic, fun, friendships, puzzles and weird and wonderful creatures.
This is a story of a young boy called Philo who lives a very normal and uneventful life with his aunt and uncle in a house full of clocks. He longs for freedom and adventure and one day that's exactly what he gets when a strange creature looks out from a grandfather clock! Philo decides to follow him into the strangest of places where nothing makes sense, a place packed with riddles and paradoxes. Can he make sense of the conundrums that litter his path. This wonderfully bonkers book is sure to thrill and intrigue puzzle-loving readers.
Predominantly working with pen and ink Matthew has truly captured the fantastical nature of Mark's story, his character observations, imaginary landscapes and attention to detail made this the perfect creative pairing. From fancy cakes and flamingos to pineapples and paper planes, we think you’ll agree that readers will be entranced from the very first page.
We spent a little time with Matthew to find out more about this project including some fascinating insights into his design process, inspirations, favourite childhood reads and drawing for pleasure.
How do you choose which elements to pick from the original manuscript for the cover?
There was a fair bit of back and forth with the publishers on the cover, as the design underwent a few changes. However, the central focus of the design - looking through the penguin gate - mostly stayed the same; the location, objects and characters needed tweaking. Originally, I’d drawn the main character, Philo, into the rough of the cover however he was taken out at an early stage of the design. Once the basic layout was approved, the next task was to pick things out of the story that would fit nicely on the cover, this was the most enjoyable part as it enabled me to select a random assortment of objects like clocks, birds and pineapples place them all around the cover.
Which element from the cover did you most enjoy illustrating?
I was surprised that the bit about the cover I most enjoyed drawing was the greedily smirking crocodile, mainly because I am petrified of reptiles in all shapes and sizes. However, I found it to be rather satisfying, and an interesting exercise in making something with very un-humanlike features grin with a smirky intent. There was something also very therapeutic about drawing the scales.
The book is illustrated throughout, which parts did you find most interesting to illustrate and which ones presented more of a challenge?
The book was a big challenge, not only because I have a full-time day job so working on the book was left to my evenings - I’m only now just getting around to sending my sincere apologies to my friends who I haven’t seen in months. There were a lot of aspects of the book I found highly enjoyable to illustrate, I appreciated the challenge of bringing Mark’s very imaginative world to life. There were many castles and towers throughout the book that needed to be drawn, which was very fun and presented the interesting opportunity to make each building reflect the characters that inhabited them.
Bringing the characters to life was my favourite part, there are three characters in the story that I was able to focus on, The Midnight Witch (which is the villain of the story, and was the first illustration I did that helped secure me the job), Mrs. Cook (which was maybe my very favourite because I famously like drawing older ladies and I had a lot of fun with the abundance of food surrounding her), and the Bridge Riddler (which was the character that changed the most from the original sketches). Part of me wishes there had been more time to illustrate even more of the characters, as Mark had created some weird and wacky personalities to dwell in his world - the Giant, the Vice-Punisher in the Tower of Punishment and the King himself - though not illustrating them gives us all the ability to imagine how we’d picture them.
Which books did you most frequently re-read as a child?
The Famous Five, The Borrowers, The Worst Witch - Alan Garner and C. S. Lewis were what I re-read and re-read as a younger person, though my favourite book was Watership Down by Richard Adams, which is not nearly as horrific as everyone assumes having been scared by the animated film. I think there is an authenticity to animal characters, whose intentions are stripped back to the utter basics - food, water, shelter and safety - that I find comforting and appealing.
Which genre would you write for if you were an author rather than an illustrator?
I would write books about children being evacuated during World War II, I don’t know why, I just find it all endlessly fascinating, and although it’s not at all an original starting point, putting characters in a position where they’re removed from their home and family, opens entire worlds of possibility. The adventure starts by boarding that train at Paddington for the complete unknown. So, it would probably be that.
Do you have time to sketch for pleasure?
Usually I do, though at the moment in my day job we’re approaching our busiest time of the year with all the festivals about to start in Edinburgh. When I do have the time, I just draw old ladies.
Which classic children’s book would you most like to illustrate and why?
The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis, there are the perfect books for illustrating. Illustrating A Riddle for a King was similar to how I’d probably approach the Narnia books, as there were a lot of fantastical elements and vivid characters, so in a lot of ways this was an appealing project for me to take on.
A huge thank you to Matthew.
A Riddle for a King publishes with David Fickling Books on the 12th September, you can pre-order a copy here.
You can find Matthew on Instagram where he shares development sketches, character designs, publishing projects and fascinating insights into his work in the world of bookselling. Matthew’s online portfolio can be viewed here and you can also view more of his illustrations for A Riddle For a King. For more information about collaborations, commissions please email info@arenaillustration.com
If you would like us to help you find the perfect creative partner for your project, please call us 020 8555 9827. Head on over to our website to find out more about our artists and sign up to our week e-newsletter too!
