Like a child reading Animalia for the first time I devoured this illustrated biography of a talented and fortunate man in one extended reading and then went back to examine choice pages. It is a beautiful book inside and out with a dust-jacket illustration (the Gondolopes from Uno’s Garden) that will draw book store customers and library visitors like a magnet. The title is almost superfluous with line, colour, composition and creativity saying ‘Base’ as clearly as the lettering. Julie Watts, formerly Penguin Books Australia’s publisher of children’s and young adult books, writes in the introduction that talking with Base left her ‘uplifted’. Two chapters about Base growing up in England and Melbourne, his marriage to Robyn, and a life-changing meeting with publisher Bob Sessions, are followed by a further 12 chapters for each of the major books, arranged chronologically, concluding with the soon to be released Enigma. Alongside the creation of the books, Watts writes of Base’s musical interests, travel and his family. Watts has worked from her own inside knowledge as a friend and editor as well as numerous interviews with Base, his wife, other family members and friends. She builds a portrait of an energetic and creative person, a stickler for hard work, who also ‘sticks’ to people he trusts and loves,‘the same publisher, the same architect, the same builder, the same accountant..’ A highlight is the 200 or so photographs and illustrations captioned with comments from Base. Among them is a Father’s Day card drawn in 1968, a spectacular dragon which he sold in 1974 to his teacher and working papers including jottings of possible titles for the alphabet book that became Animalia (one of which is ‘Animanuelle’!). Line drawings or roughs provide insights on composition while variant illustrations show the hard work of getting things right. Best of all is how the illustrations sit in proper proximity to relevant text. To read, for example, how Pooh and all other Disney characters had to be removed from the ‘P’ illustration in Animalia, and on turning the page find the illustration to examine anew, adds much to the pleasure of reading. No doubt there is more to learn about Graeme Base, and more for him to create, but for now a wide readership, from students of illustration to young readers and older fans, will be eager for this excellent book.

Kerry White is a major contributor to The Source

Tags: julie watts