About the Author

Illustrator of 'Little Honey Bee', 'Wales on the Map', 'Four Branches of the Mabinogi' and many more, Valeriane is a French artist who has lived in Wales since 2007. She was brought up in Angers, France, and now lives in an old farmhouse near Aberystwyth with her three sons, several cats and too many chickens. Illustrator of 'Little Honey Bee', 'Wales on the Map', 'Four Branches of the Mabinogi' and many more, Valeriane is a French artist who has lived in Wales since 2007. She was brought up in Angers, France, and now lives in an old farmhouse near Aberystwyth with her three sons, several cats and too many chickens.

Reviews

A delightful picture book of parallel environments and homely 19th-century domestic life, held together by the simplest of Welsh artefacts – a home-made felted quilt, stitched by Mam from triangles of black flannel used for Dad’s Sunday clothes and red flannel used for her own dress. It’s a poignant story which resonates strongly even today – leaving one’s homeland in a time of poverty and looking for a new and better life in a faraway country. Told through the eyes and ears of a small child, the whole series of events is delightfully presented. Valériane, the obviously talented author/illustrator, captures both the intimacy of the tiny cottage, with its dresser, Gaudy Welsh pottery, sycamore bowls and spoons, lovingly carved by Dad, and the immensity of the city docks, with numerous Lowry-esque figures hurrying towards their embarkment on the ocean liner, bound for America. I particularly liked the opening and the closing pages, which matched each other in landscape detail, and the phrasing of the echoing sentences, and of course the designer quilt itself, which reappears as the story unravels. I have a Victorian Welsh quilt myself, and so appreciate its significance! The text is economical, just enough to enhance the illustrations and connect, through words and pictures, with the young narrator, innocent of the historical implications of the themes which underpin what appears to be a simple story. The care with which the presentation of the tale and the spirit of hiraeth is conveyed, sets this publication apart. I’m sure there will be a longing to hear it again and again, finding new details in the pictures (look out for that tiny quilt on the washing line behind the newly-built barn – and its use on the book’s cover, which I’ve only just noticed!), and recalling how this special little family inhabited the land and the land inhabited them. And the price! A snip of Mam’s sewing scissors at £5.99, and in hardback as well!
*Chris S. Stephens @ www.gwales.com*