Celebrating Children's Books

The success of children's books continues to be celebrated throughout the U.K. In London, the National Portrait Gallery is showing Beatrix Potter to Harry Potter: Children's Authors and Illustrators Through the Twentieth Century. The exhibition includes 54 portraits of the creators of cultural icons such as Peter Rabbit, Peter Pan, Noddy, Charlie Bucket and, of course, Harry Potter, alongside memorabilia such as J.K. Rowling's handwritten first drafts and the typewriter on which Enid Blyton banged out up to 10,000 words a day. The portraits range from the well-known portrait of Potter as an old woman in her beloved Lake District and Lord Snowdon's distinctive photograph of J.R.R. Tolkien posed magisterially under an enormous tree, to images of more recent writers such as Philip Pullman, who is shown outside the shed in which he writes. The exhibition remains at the National Portrait Gallery until August 26 and will open in Durham in December before moving to Brighton and Canterbury in 2003.

In Newcastle, Magic Pencil: Children's Book Illustration Today is on show at the Laing Art Gallery. Selected by Quentin Blake, it is an exhibition of original artwork designed to show the talent of contemporary illustrators. The 13 illustrators displayed include Blake himself, Shirley Hughes, Raymond Briggs, John Burningham, Tony Ross, Michael Foreman, Patrick Benson and newcomers Sara Fanelli and Lauren Child. The exhibition, devised and organized by the British Council, remains in Newcastle until September 15, before moving to the British Museum in London from November 2002 to March 2003.

In Edinburgh, This Book Belongs to Me, a celebration of children's books from Tom Thumb to Harry Potter, opened last month at the National Library of Scotland. The exhibition of books and manuscripts, which includes first editions dating back to 1682 as well as another draft from J.K. Rowling, is open until the end of October.