Fabulous Beasts

Like Gawain this is less a picture book than a book-with-pictures. Each double-spread reminded me of the next exhibit in a gallery - with an adjacent blow-up of the relevant catalogue-entry lest I got lost amongst the Unicorns and Gulons and Dragons and Salmanders. If the format sounds pedestrian, don't believe it. Every aspect of the book is a delight owing partly to the deadpan elegance of Alison Lurie's writing and partly to Monika Beisner's portraits, enamelled on the surface, intricately detailed beneath. As with their previous venture The Heavenly Zoo it's the sort of book that gets coffee-tables a good name and I don't say this from fear that they'll set their Mimick Dog on me, a creature that will 'tag after you, mocking your walk, gestures and conversation in such a comic manner that no one who sees it will be able to help laughing.' I'd rather face a Gryphon any day. Age level? Eight to eighty.