Beautiful books: Animal Farm (Illustrated hardback)

I remember reading Animal Farm at school and crying over the cartoon version with my sister (this was back before collective paranoia meant that the first time children had to deal with death was when it struck someone close to them). My mother gave me a beautiful hardback copy illustrated by Ralph Steadman and I was really saddened when it got lost in a move. It's out of print so I've been keeping my eyes open in charity shops in the hope of finding another copy. The illustrations were, in true Steadman style, a little unusual and disconcerting and there was rather a lot of blood - a bit of a first for me at that age. It's not what you'd automatically think of when you consider books for young girls but the realism of the ilustrations brought the story to life and made it one of my favourite books.

Images from www.signatureillustration.org and Ongemist.