The Dickens Riddell Hello everybody. It has been quite a while since I wrote everything, and you mustn't expect much more until the summer, however a pressing (well, to me at least) matter has brought me here at this busy time to address you all. A year or so ago, a man called Chris Riddell was commissioned to do a poster for The Observer newspaper entitled 'Dickens' heroes and villains.' You may not know Chris Riddell, or at least not by name. His art is fabulous and highly destinctive. He illustrated the Edge Chronicles series of books, and also has done a large number of books for younger readers, he also does a weekly political cartoon for The Observer which appears at the beginning of their Comment section. If you still don't know who I mean, type Chris Riddell into your search engine and he should come up pretty quickly. Anyway, back to the poster. This poster was fabulous. It really created the characters before you eyes. I like Dickens, but I don't know all of his stories (or what goes on in them at least, for I do know the names) and yet from Riddell's illustrations I felt I knew them instantly. Dickens gets a bit of a bad press, both as a person and as a writer. "He was paid by the word, you know!" is a frequently voiced phrase by English teachers across the land. Now, this isn't far from the truth. He does feel a little wordy at times- to his betterment, I believe, for the language is very evocative and engaging, but perhaps it needs a renaissance. George Cruikshank is the original and brilliant illustrator of Dickens. His work is very beautiful, skilful...and stuffy. I feel that there should be a re-release of Dickens works with a new illustrator, someone who can evoke the same brilliance in his own special way. I am of course alluding to Mr Riddell. I think that Chris Riddell should illustrate many (if not all) of Dickens books and have them published. Perhaps by Penguin. Or Bloomsbury...or whoever! Cruikshank's work won't go away, it won't be replaced. There will just be another interpretation of dickens words in illustration. This, I feel, will help to give Dickens work the breath of #life it needs to become popular in all circles once again. Let me know what you think of the idea in the comments, and look up Riddell's work if you don't already know it. Thanks for reading.