At the top of Neil Gaiman’s notebook, a doodle of a woman with shaggy hair and huge, black, perfectly round eyes stares out above an early draft of his children’s novel Coraline. In Ursula K Le Guin’s sketchbook, a ring, decoratively pierced and etched with symbols, is drawn cracked in two, just as it appears in the second volume of her Earthsea trilogy. And Susanna Clarke’s notes contain a neatly labelled diagram of the labyrinthine halls featured in her novel, Piranesi.
These endearing author sketches of the characters, settings and objects that eventually formed part of bestselling novels are all on display at the British Library’s new exhibition, Fantasy: Realms of Imagination, which runs until 25 February. The show explores the long history of fantasy through manuscripts and early editions of landmark novels, as well as props, costumes and clips from the popular TV shows and films that expanded the genre – from Gandalf’s staff to a snippet of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
