The Icy Hand

Chris Mould

Hodder

0340945052

Aug 2007

Chris Mould’s greatest skill both as an illustrator and as a writer is in encapsulating intense moments of humanity and compassion and in endowing even the seemingly arbitrary with a rare sense of animation. The joy of his work arises not through the commodity of an ill-defined ‘magic’, but rather through a genuine sense of wonder and intrigue that permeates his characters and settings leaving readers with a sense of awe.
A wonderfully rich invocation of pathos and humour are evoked by the stuffed pike that befriends Stanley, by the misfortunes that befall the ghost of Admiral Swift and his lost appendage. The manner through which affectionate good humour and the chill of suspense and fear are juxtaposed and yet equally held in balance makes for a beautifully full-bodied and wholesome story. Illustrations draw on the quirky satirical traditions of Searle, Scarfe and Steadman and there is a touch of genius in the thoughtful way with which these have been appropriated and augmented for the market of children’s books.
Through etching indelible images, visual and verbal, in the minds of his readers, Mould is creating a series that will appeal at once to the polar extremes of the most avid readers and those who are least confident. Exciting both in terms of its production and its narrative, this book is a potent reminder that reading at its best really is the adventure of a lifetime and that stories are a birth-right in which we all share and are able to communicate differences and divergences of opinion.