Chris
Riddell
The Tales of Beedle the Bard
The cover of the book is shrouded with flowers and features many beloved characters from Beedle’s stories, such as the three witches from ‘The Fountain of Fair Fortune’ and the pot from ‘The Wizard and the Hopping Pot’. Flip the book over, and you’ll be greeted with a new back cover drawing of Albus Dumbledore, who provides notes on Beedle’s stories.
‘It has been a magical experience in all senses being invited into the world of Harry Potter and illustrating these wonderful tales,’ Chris said. ‘I hope this edition will be enjoyed by wizards and Muggles alike!’
Did you know Chris Riddell simply loves Horklumps? Well, he does. A lot. Yes, the award-winning artist (and self-appointed Hufflepuff), notable for his political pieces and frequent collaborations with fantasy author Neil Gaiman, recently joined the Wizarding World family with his work on the illustrated edition of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, published by Bloomsbury in 2018. As Chris prepared to join fellow Wizarding World illustrator Jim Kay for a special panel at St James’s Church in London, the artist mused on going from reading Harry Potter to his kids, to bringing one of J.K. Rowling’s books to life himself.
‘I’m a particular type of fan. I’m old enough to have kids who I read the books to, so I read Harry Potter as a parent,’ Chris told us. ‘Unfortunately, I had the very sad experience about halfway through the series... my kids learnt to read independently and said, “sorry dad, we’ll take it from here!” A great shame! But we have discussed the books many times.’
‘I feel it was a perfect project,’ Chris added. ‘I was able to dip a toe in the waters by doing ‘The Tale of the Three Brothers’ and also draw Dumbledore. But I was also led into this other parallel world, this other fairytale world, and so I didn’t feel that great weight of responsibility of drawing the much-loved characters, I was able to cut loose a little bit, and have a lot of fun with Horklumps and Bowtruckles.’
While Chris inadvertently drew his dad when creating his Dumbledore
In terms of choosing Wizarding World favourites to draw, Chris rather morbidly chose Death from ‘The Tale of the Three Brothers’ (‘there’s something very cathartic about it’)