When I first found ‘Cinderella’ illustrated by Stephen Cartwright on the shelf of a bookcase in a small toy store, I immediately had the ‘this is it’ feeling. With a big exclamation mark. I had been looking for the nicely illustrated and simple versions (not too long) of the classical fairy tales for quite some time at that point. On that day, many years ago, I discovered Stephen Cartwright’s warm and beautiful illustrations. This very talented artist immediately became one of my most favourite ones.
I bought many other books with his pictures and our first collection were Usborne Fairytale Stories. There is one more book in this series, Three Little Pigs, which I intentionally don’t show here, because although illustrations by Stephen Cartwright are stunning as always, the Three Little Pigs tale was retold in such a way, that it lost all its original wisdom. So, I am skipping the 3 Little Pigs, but Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Rumpelstiltskin, Sleeping Beauty, and Goldilocks and the Three Bears with Stephen Cartwright’s illustrations I can read any number of times and I will never be bored. And the picture of a pumpkin changing into a coach etc., from Cinderella, is one of my most favourite illustrations of all the children books that I have ever seen.