The Fox and the Star
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The Fox and the Star is an illustrated book by Coralie Bickford-Smith, a cover designer at Penguin Books. Published in 2015, it was chosen as that year's Waterstones Book of the Year, beating highly acclaimed contenders including Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman, Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend, Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train, and A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara.[1][2]
In December 2015, author Coralie Bickford-Smith wrote in UK newspaper The Guardian, "Although The Fox and the Star looks like a children's book I wanted the story to be something that resonated with adults as well. The page layout and design were heavily influenced by William Blake and William Morris, evoking a sense of illuminated manuscripts and traditional fairytales. Where I felt it appropriate I playfully dispensed with the strict layout and allowed the elements to break out into the margins."[3] Bickford-Smith told The Guardian's Alison Flood that before writing the book, "I was thinking about how in life, if you hold on to something too tightly, you lose it, so to love something you have to let it go, and I wrote the story around that. It relates to so many situations – everyone has suffered – and it came together for me with losing my mum at an early age. Children seem to love the idea of the friends and the crazy illustrations, while adults like the concept of things being tough, but coming out the other side."[2] Reporting on the theme of loss, the BBC quoted her saying, "It's about love, loss and learning to accept change. Everyone's been through loss. I lost my mum while I was at university, it resonated with that".[4]
Bickford-Smith has said, "I'm all about the physical book. We haven’t released The Fox and the Star as an ebook because I don't think it would work – it's all about the paper. I wanted to create something which harked back to the beautiful visual thinking of William Morris and William Blake, so that people would really appreciate the book as an object."[2]
Plot
The book tells the story of Fox, who lives in the forest. One night he loses his only friend, Star, who until then lit his way through the trees every night. Forced to confront the blackness of the forest alone, Fox mourns his friend before learning how to enjoy life and the world again without his former companion.[5]