Oscar Wilde's story of The Selfish Giant was a favourite of Alexis Deacon's so he decided to rewrite it in his own way. Then suitable for a picture book format, it was published by Random House. As quoted in The Bookseller, 'Deacon breathes new life into Wilde's timeless fairy tale.'
In 2005 Jonathan Cape commissioned the most exciting children's book artists of the day to produce illustrations for a collection of much of the best-loved verse in Roald Dahl's books. The result was Songs and Verse, a superb and very collectable book, 'a visual feast, zinging with colour and wit', with illustrations by Quentin Blake, Lauren Child, Axel Scheffler, Gerald Scarfe, Alexis Deacon and many others.
Fresh from his success with his own picture book, Beegu which had been voted the New York Times 'Best Illustrated Children's Book of 2003', Alexis was invited to illustrate some of the bugs from James and the Giant Peach. And now some of those originals are available.
