The trend for acclaimed novelists of adult fiction to sidestep into picture books shows no signs of abating. Both Maggie O’Farrell and Zadie Smith have had triumphs in recent years and now, 40 years (and umpteen books) since being named one of Granta’s best of young British novelists in 1983, Rose Tremain joins in with Iron Robin (Puffin, 18 May), a beautiful story inspired by a tiny metal bird she found in a junk shop in southern France, with illustrations by Richard Jones.
You can understand the allure: children’s publishing is booming and the task of conjuring a whole world in a slim clutch of pages must seem a tantalising exercise in efficiency and imagination for authors more accustomed to turning in dozens of chapters. Still, it’s a very particular skill and many efforts don’t make the grade.
