He was a fighter pilot for the RAF during World War Two, and it was while writing about his experiences during this time that he started his career as an author. I know that the original Patrick Benson picture book illustrations for the Minpins are more suited to the atmosphere of the story and I know that the re-illustrated versions of the pre-1978 Dahl stories might be a mere cash grab by Dahl's estate and publishers.

They reward him by sending the swan to serve as Little Billy's own personal transport every night, which he uses to explore the world and to continue his newfound friendship with the Minpins.I thought it might be scary for him but he enjoyed it and was motivated by the world of the minpins.

As such, it has a bit more stature to it and can take its place alongside the three other novellas in Dahl's corpus. Illustrated by Quentin Blake for the first time in 2017, Billy and the Minpins is a new interpretation of Roald Dahl’s very last story (originally published as ‘The Minpins’ in 1991) and marks nearly forty years of their magical collaboration. I think I might be keen to see Dahl's estate put out a colour edition of this Blake edition of the Minpins.He escapes what he is sure must be the Spittler by climbing up a tree as high and as fast as he can. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. My middle child didn't tell me till he was a teenager how he would run into his bedroom scared and jump into bed and pull the covers up over his head after I read this book to him. It may be different from Benson's naturalistic picture book illustrations, but it has its own rewards to devotees of Dahl and Blake. For more details, please consult the latest information provided by Royal Mail's International Incident Bulletin.