Main image: We all need a bit of The BFG in our lives. Illustration: Quentin Blake
Fri 24 Jun 2016 07.00 EDT Last modified on Wed 19 Oct 2022 11.04 EDT
Today a remarkable exhibition opens at the London’s House of Illustration: The BFG in pictures. The exhibition is curated by Quentin Blake and contains 40 original artworks, including some which which have never been exhibited in public before. The show gives a fascinating insight into the collaboration between Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake. This gallery, with words by Quentin Blake, shares a few of these illustrations and the story behind illustrating The BFG. This slide shows the cover artwork for The BFG published by Jonathan Cape in 1982.
In the mid 1970s, I was sent the manuscript of Roald Dahl’s new book, The BFG. I had already illustrated The Enormous Crocodile, and The Twits. But this was a much longer book so that I was not surprised when my editor asked me to produce simply 12 full page drawings for a modest payment. I did these and everything was at the printers when I received a phone call to say that our author “was not happy.” This was not because Roald had disliked the drawings, but because there were not enough of them. This illustration of the BFG with apron has never been published before.
Over the next two or three days I produced another 20 or so drawings that could be slipped in at the head of each chapter without altering the layout of the book. I had hardly relaxed from that effort when the phone rang again: “He’s still not happy.” It’s a very acceptable problem when an author feels that he has not got enough illustrations. What was more to my advantage was that, starting again to re-illustrate the book and let the drawings make their way continuously among the text. I was able to go to Gipsy House to talk about the moments that Dahl would like illustrated.
Roald Dahl was also unhappy about the apron – which you see in this picture – and boots “they get in the way” – and we sat down to discuss what the BFG should really wear. Later on I came to realise that this was in fact the beginning of the real collaboration which went on through the other books for the rest of Dahl’s lifetime. This is another one of the original previously unseen illustrations. Snozzcumbers are already in the book but it’s evident that the BFG himself is a younger character with ears less responsive than they came to be later.
This is the original version of the extraordinary visit to Buckingham Palace with the BFG seated at a table raised, I seem to remember, on a series of Grandfather clocks with an impressive butler figure bringing a breakfast of multiple eggs and bacon. Later on, with more pictures at my disposition, I had the opportunity of including the Queen herself and the interesting moment where the BFG hits a chandelier.
This is one of the drawings from the first published version of the BFG. You will see that the BFG has become much older and more wrinkled and is now drawn in a way that makes him a more believable, even though very unusual, individual. Talking to Dahl about the book had made me more conscious of the importance of the relationship between a big friendly giant and Sophie – (the only character, incidentally, named after a member of his own family – his granddaughter.) Later on, these drawings also were coloured in for a special edition of the book.
The popularity of Dahl went on increasing during his lifetime and continued after his death in 1990 so that in 1994 the Royal Mail commissioned a special First Class BFG stamp. I drew this specially in colour though I no longer remember if it was my idea that the bottle of Frobscottle, the drink with the disastrous effects, should be included in the picture. There was also a postcard version of the stamp. Later on, in 2012, there was a set of Roald Dahl stamps showing his most celebrated characters.
As part of as part of the celebrations for Roald Dahl 100 – marking the centenary of the author’s birth – Puffin has publish a brand new limited edition of The BFG containing the original illustrations. This will be available exclusively through Waterstones, with some editions also available in the House of Illustration shop.
There’s so much going on for Roald Dahl’s 100th birthday. You might want to visit the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre, in the Buckinghamshire village where Roald Dahl lived for 36 years. You can even go in Roald Dahl’s famous writing shed.
