Age 7-12

This handsome book must be the year’s most impressive illustrative feat. Riddell already specialises in both the fantastical and, as a political cartoonist, the satirical, which makes him perfect to reimagine Swift’s worlds. He captures the spirit of whimsy that informs the text, without losing sight of serious themes such as the ridiculousness of intellectual pretention or the horrors of old age. One picture, illustrating the practice on the island of Balnibarbi of prodding, pinching and tweaking politicians to remind them of promises they otherwise forget, depicts Tony Blair as the target of the aide-mémoire. Throughout, Riddell adds his own ideas to those of Swift: the Lilliputians, for instance, whose society is divided by differing opinions about eggs, all have birds as pets. And Gulliver, whose hair is pegged to the beach when he is washed up in Lilliput, continues to wear pegs in his hair during his stay there. Jenkins’s rewriting is a clear and faithful rendition, preserving Swift’s ironies and delight in scatological humour. The final picture shows Gulliver’s son reading his father’s account of his travels with wonder. So, now, can this generation.

(Walker £14.99)

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