After the Bible, The Little Prince is the most translated book in the world. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s short, sweet novella has spawned more than 600 translations and counting, the author’s great-nephew Olivier d’Agay tells me. And this surreal story of an aviator who crashes in the desert and meets a small princely boy who has travelled from his own tiny planet is still picking up fans globally. “In Brazil, China, the Middle East,” laughs d’Agay. “Even England.”
The book was first published in 1943 in New York, pilot and writer Saint-Exupéry having fled occupied France. It may be “an ambassador for French culture” as d’Agay puts it, but the innocent wisdom of its central character clearly taps into something universal. Over the years, there have been countless adaptations and tie-ins worldwide – and the latest is a dance-circus show, by choreographer Anne Tournié, which has already toured to 18 cities, from Riyadh to Mumbai to Sydney to Sofia. Its now about to land in London.
