Some books are so part of you that they have crept into your DNA.

My first:

Han Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales
Published by Paul Hamlyn
Illustrated by Jiri Trnka

I got this book for my second Christmas, so it has been around with me for a long, long time. It is now a dirty white, and the binding is nearly gone.

There are some grim little silhouettes:

And it is quite funny to spot the occasional drawings by little me.

But Trnka’s soft, smudgy, ethereal work are the star. There is something dark and mysterious and so Other about them.

• My photos of  the book
• Read the post Forgotten Illustrator: Jiri Trnka  on 50watts.com