There are not a lot of Pictures in my writings about Blackpool. The episodes themselves are such a bewildering succession of scenes and motion, song and dialogue, colour and darkness, all used to conceal rather than reveal meaning — or, rather, to delay comprehension of what exactly is going on — that the last thing I wished to do was to distract the viewer. Nor, obviously, to detract from what is as visually powerful a work of art as anything around.
The choice was actually easy. Since Blackpool the seaside holiday resort is such an inescapable part of the Blackpool proceedings I looked for Posters or other illustrations.
— Supplemented always with items recalling Fairy Tale
and Myth. The left-column Picture of Hans Christian Andersen's The
Tinderbox doesn't begin to show what a wonderful
thing it is to hold the large book.
And then there are Gustave Doré's woodcut
illustrations, two of which are reproduced below.
At left, Delicious Terror, Reading the tales to the family, Frontispiece; and to the right, Don't bother me with your problems, The two brothers set upon Bluebeard, Pages 110-111, detail.
A rather smaller but no less marvellous
acquisition, The Complete Fairy Tales by
Charles Perrault, with a new translation by Christopher
Betts, Oxford University Press, supplemented by an incredible
number of notes, introductions, chronologies, and appendices
by the translator which are much appreciated, is another
treasure worth buying for an adult — and the
full page (and sometimes two-page) Gustave Doré illustrations
make the Fairy Tales even more enjoyable.
Oxford University Press, the publishers,
obviously share my delight:— Little Red Riding-Hood is
surprised to see what her grandmother looks like, Page 102, Detail,
is shown on the front of the dust jacket, and Red
Riding-Hood meets Master Wolf , Page 98, on the back.
The Pictures are large enough to show off Doré's mischievous humour — which succeeds in robbing the illustrations, and stories, of some of their horror. (Note the picture on the wall, and the unconcern of the boys in upper left Reading the tales to the family, and the startling chest adornment on Bluebeard's gargoyle to the right.)
________________________
As my poor father used to say
In 1863,
Once people start on all this Art
Goodbye moralitee !
And what my father used to say
Is good enough for me.
— A.P. Herbert
Lines for a Worthy Person
ODQ 243 : 2
Harry Green — Blackpool
With Picture of the Opera House — Detail
Dust Jacket 'The Tinderbox' Hans Christian Andersen 
Georges Rouault,
Heads of two Clowns, www.barewalls.com,
Gala
Night, Empress Ballroom, Blackpool 
J W Waterhouse,
Psyche Entering Cupid's Garden,
Gustave Doré ________________________
Sandsifter Five Retrospectives