The Crows Remember, an illustrated fairytale

At the start of this year the illustrator Bonnie Helen Hawkins (accompanied by a story from novelist Joanne Harris) kicked off her 52 Crows project, in which she vowed to draw a crow every Monday all year, to illustrate a story or poem. This week I was lucky enough to have her choose my story The Crows Remember as the focus of her drawing and man is it good! She's gone colourful for this one, picking up on the wildflowers I mention and using them to beautiful effect. You can see her gorgeous drawing (and read my story) on her blog. I urge you to go look at all the other wonderful pictures and read everyone else's stories and poems as well.

The Crows Remember is a sad story, as pretty much everyone who's read it so far has pointed out, but I was going for fairytale/folktale and there's often an undercurrent of sadness or something dark at the core of those so I think I found the tone I was looking for. It's set (though I didn't specify in the story) in Swaledale, which to me is a mysterious place populated by the shades of my ancestors, and some sheep - all of 30 miles and a couple of dales away from where I live, but when you don't drive it's not an easy place to visit. Unless maybe you're fitter than I am and own a bicycle. I digress...

I hope you enjoy the story. I don't see how you could fail to be impressed by the drawing. And if you're anywhere near Bath, I think there are plans for a 52 Crows exhibition next year, keep an eye on Bonnie's Twitter for details.