Judith Kerr on Mog the Cat: images and words

From an episode of BBC’s Desert Island Discs

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p07kjbsv

At 22:55 into the interview

Sue Lawley:
The text and the pictures, your illustrations are very interwoven aren’t they? Sometimes one takes the narrative lead; sometimes the other.

Kerr:
I started doing the Mog books when my children were learning to read. And I thought that children shouldn’t be made to read anything unnecessary. And so I would never put anything in the text that was in the pictures. You know, if you say ‘he was wearing read trousers’ and you see a boy with red trousers. I mean it’s a waste of their energy. I didn’t want them to have to do that. So I tried to use as few words as possible as well as possible.

I admire that formulation: as few words as possible as well as possible.

And so for day 2684
19.04.2014

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