My sister Jane returned from Italy in time for Rowan’s birthday. She gave him a gorgeous Italian-inspired birthday present - a copy of the Robert Ingpen illustrated Pinocchio and a gorgeous Pinnochio print for his room. She even found a Pinocchio card - which would also look gorgeous in a frame.

Robert Ingpen has illustrated a range of classics for Templar Publishing and they are beautiful productions. Lou reviewed The Wind in the Willows here, and I gave Rowan a copy of Ingpen’s Peter Pan for his first birthday. The illustrations are so fitting, and after reading one, you almost forget there could possibly be any other version of illustration for these stories. Soft and dreamlike, they imbue a sense of old-world charm. The fact that Robert Ingpen is Melbourne born and bred is icing on the cake for me!

I love endpapers, and these Pinocchio endpapers are some of the nicest I’ve seen in a while.