Ed Vere has been producing popular board books for several years, but it’s his more recent foray into picture books that has really been making a splash.
His use of bold, flat colour and the expressive, goggly eyes that characterise his protagonists are hallmarks of a distinctive, energetic style that earned Vere’s second picture book, Banana, a nomination for the Kate Greenaway medal.
‘I think in a very linear way,’ he explains. ‘Others see hues and tints when they paint, but I tend to see the outlines of things, so when I began illustrating, I naturally went into that way of working.
'I think it works well because it’s very readable to children. I think if you get extremely painterly it’s less defined, and young children need something that’s quite defined. I was inspired by Meg and Mog, and the simplicity of that.’
"I was inspired by Meg and Mog, and the simplicity of that."
His first book, The Getaway, which Vere describes as ‘Raymond Chandler for children’, is a clever homage to film noir. The action ostensibly takes place on the mean streets of New York or Chicago, but in fact it is Barcelona, where Vere was living at the time, that provided the photographic backdrop.
‘I was fascinated by the erosion and the dilapidation of some of the buildings, particularly at kerb level. There’s a lot of the city that’s very old, a lot of interesting texture: a medieval quarter and graffiti. I started taking photos and wondered who could inhabit such a world. It led off from there.’
The book stars anti-hero Fingers McGraw, a mouse that steals some cheese from a shop and then enlists the child reader as lookout as he attempts to evade elephant detective Jumbo Wayne Jr’s efforts to bring him to justice.
Vere worried that a book that seemed to entice children to a life of crime would be too subversive for publishers to take on. ‘I thought they wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole. But, somehow, stealing is part of a mouse’s nature.
'So maybe you can accept that he’s a little bit of a criminal and don’t think too badly of him. You get rid of mice, but you tend to feel some affection for their brazenness.’
At the time, Vere wondered if The Getaway was too visually and textually sophisticated for young children, so he deliberately situated his second picture book at the opposite end of the spectrum: Banana contains just two characters and two words.
‘I thought I would try to tell the story as simply as possible, mainly through the pictures. It started out with just one word. “Please” didn’t feature.
"So much is from observing people, and from remembering myself and my brother when we were younger."
'In a book like Banana, which is all about the characterisation, so much is from observing people, and from remembering myself and my brother when we were younger.’
‘The initial ending had one monkey stomping around, asking you, the reader, for the banana. In the end he gets his banana and holds up the empty skin and asks for another, so there’s no gratitude at all.
'I liked that because it’s quite true in some ways. I think a lot of children and parents would recognise that situation. I’m always tempted by a more cynical ending. But in the editorial process it was thought, and I agree now, that a more positive ending probably works better.
'But I’m never keen on hitting you over the head with a message. If there’s something you can fit in with a little humour and a light touch, then that’s all very well and good.’
In his latest picture book, Mr Big, Vere returns to the period atmosphere of The Getaway, this time setting the book in the ’50s American jazz scene.
Both the main character and the musical theme developed organically, as with all of his work. ‘Before any book I’ll be doodling away and thinking of possible characters. I start by drawing two circles, which are the eyes.
"In the case of Mr Big, a gorilla started emerging, and he was wearing a tail coat and playing a piano."
'Very often after that I don’t know what creature I’ll be drawing. In the case of Mr Big, a gorilla started emerging, and he was wearing a tail coat and playing a piano, and he looked quite aggressive and surly, but also he had a vulnerable, sensitive side.
'I liked that duality and thought that could be explored more.’ The primate’s threatening appearance frightens off potential friends, and he expresses his loneliness through his music, which Vere imagines as sounding something like jazz pianist Keith Jarrett’s Köln Concert.
'Gradually, a crowd gathers outside to listen to the mysterious pianist and eventually Mr Big is appreciated for who he really is.
‘I wasn’t clear that he was definitely going to find his salvation through music. You slowly find your way along a story with a mixture of a bit of writing and drawing. It doesn’t happen for me that in the beginning of a story I know what will happen at the end.
'It’s a bit like a blind man tapping his way along with a white stick: you’re exploring the terrain as you walk over it. As I carried on with Mr Big and saw what sort of a character he was, and his predicament, I wanted to draw a parallel with a child who might find group situations difficult: that “lonely child in the playground” syndrome. I wanted to show that there’s light at the end of the tunnel.’
Vere’s affinity with children is obvious; he portrays childhood experience with affection but without romanticization and he aims to recapture some of their natural ease in his approach to his art.
‘I find the uninhibited quality of children completely fascinating. As we grow older we learn to inhibit ourselves. Picasso was always interested in getting back to the state of childhood where you don’t overanalyse things and you get on and do it, and that’s how children do things. It’s hugely interesting.
'As a creative person I think I’m always trying to get to that point, not to overanalyse or think, but just to spontaneously create, and that’s something that children have. It’s that way of attacking the world with glee. I really envy children that.’
