About the illustrators: Portia Rosenberg and Charles Vess

Portia Rosenberg

Portia Rosenberg was born in Manchester in 1962, and grew up thoroughly immersed in Jewish schools, community and family. She has worked in lots of jobs — offices, healthfood shops, post delivery, childcare — and currently works in the children's section of a bookshop. She came to take up illustration late — at the age of 30 — having studied English Literature first time around. Both courses were at Anglia Polytechnic University. In the two summers following her illustration degree, she showed her work at home as part of Cambridge Open Studios, and as a result was invited to produce and exhibit work in a year-long artist's residency at Cambridge Arts Theatre, making drawings from memory rather than during the performances.

She says: "Amazingly, it was also through visiting my open studio that Susanna Clarke came to invite me — about 8 years later — to do the illustrations for Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell."

She has had two drawings shortlisted for the Garrick/Milne Prize Competition and last year completed the first year of a part-time MA in Children's Book Illustration. Her previous (self-initiated) work includes drawings for Oliver Twist, 'Cinderella', 'Red Riding Hood', Edgar Allen Poe's Tales of Mystery and Imagination and Alexander Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo. She also likes writing and illustrating nonsense poetry.

Of her work, she says: "I seem to draw sporadically, having long periods without working and then, once I have something to get my teeth into, concentrate solely on that. I have treasured the input of my tutors which has really steered me well, from quite tentative beginnings. I strive for expressiveness and liveliness in characterisation, narrative and atmosphere, and am besotted by Daumier, Goya and Rembrandt."

Questions and Answers...

Your illustrations for Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell are extremely atmospheric. Which aspects of Susanna Clarke's writing were you drawing on when you set about creating the drawings for the book?
I guess that I love the combination of Susanna's particular kind of fantasy with the romantic feel of the period — I think it's very evocative of a world that many people will feel fascinated by. In particular, I found the magical imagery extremely inspiring.

Do you have a favourite character or episode in the book? If so, who or which is it, and why?
There are many episodes and character descriptions which struck me on first reading and which have lingered since — I loved details such as the costumes at the fairy balls — the dress made of singing mouths and the wig of beetles; the stunning idea of the moving stone statues and the way they grate against each other; the quality of the light and the substance of the rain-ships; the appearance and attitude of Mrs Delgado; and also the humour throughout the book. I certainly think there is a huge store of inspiring imagery within the book.

Did you do any kind of picture research (or other kind of research) to create the illustrations?
Susanna supplied me with masses of visual references which she had used for her own research and I also scoured the internet and watched videos. But it seems that for me, I often need to launch into the drawing without letting the references take over — in order to go for the aspect which interests me.

Which of the illustrations in the book are you most proud of?
I think I am pleased with the images of Jonathan Strange stepping out of the mirror and of the horse being grasped by a mud-hand at Waterloo — but I find I am always feeling like I would do all of them differently now, so it is quite hard to be satisfied!

Charles Vess