Farshore adapts The Little Prince as picture book for the first time

Farshore will adapt Antoine de Saint- Exupéry's classic The Little Prince as a picture book for the first time, with award-winning author and poet Louise Greig and new artwork from Sarah Massini

Greig was brought on board by Melissa Farley, publishing director at Farshore, which holds the rights to Katharine Woods’ 1943 English translation. Massini, illustrator of The Velveteen Rabbit (Nosy Crow), was contracted by Tiffany Leeson, creative director at Farshore, through literary agent Eunice McMullen. The book will publish on 28th October. 

The Little Prince is the most translated book after the Bible, having been published in over 400 languages. The new edition continues to enchant readers around the world, with Farshore selling the new picture book to 13 territories ahead of publication in October including Hebrew, Turkish, Simplified Chinese, Complex Chinese, Danish, Portuguese, Welsh, Greek, Japanese, Korean, Brazilian Portuguese, German and Italian.

Greig said: “The Little Prince is a beguiling and utterly unique novella but it is also enigmatic. It would have been impossible to tell the story as a narrative tale within the page constraints of the picture book format so instead I tried to stand back and just let the poetic and mysterious heart of the book shine through. Ultimately I had difficult choices to make because I could not include everything but as the little prince himself says, what is hidden is beautiful.”

Massini added: “I’ve imbued the art with everything I know about and love in the original text, using lots of rich colour and texture. I hope the end result is accessible to a young audience but is familiar enough to reassure the older fans of the original treasured book.”