Images from The Once and Future King

I did this drawing at college. It shows the Wart meeting Merlin, a scene from "The Sword in the Stone" by TH White.

I'm sure I must have posted it before but it was a very key image in my college career and it directly lead to me doing this book cover for the book for Collins one of my first publishers.

TH White's "Once and Future King" series is still my all time favourite work for young adults.

The little vignette of the Wart and Merlin reading appeared on the back cover of the book. I can't find the book for sale anywhere on line. It must be a bit of a rarity.

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The Wart and Merlin

I 've just come across this drawing that I did at college. That's going back at least twenty five years.

This was a project set by my tutor John Vernon Lord.  John was quite a Merlin-like figure himself in many ways.

 Anyway the project involved illustrating a passage from The Sword in the Stone by TH White.

This was very much a pivotal moment for me. I discovered for the first time a kind of sophisticated literature for children and adults alike, and I discovered that I could draw the kind of pictures that suited this kind of story.

In many ways this was the drawing that started my career as a children's book illustrator.