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PREVIEW: The Sleeper and the Spindle

Besi Besemar October 6, 2014

Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell reunite their bestselling partnership to create a beautiful and unique fairy tale that puts a daring queen at the very heart of the adventure.

WEB.600ON THE EVE of her wedding, a young queen sets out to rescue a princess from an enchantment. She casts aside her fine wedding clothes, takes her chain mail and her sword and follows her brave dwarf retainers into the tunnels under the mountain towards the sleeping kingdom.

This queen will decide her own future – and the princess who needs rescuing is not quite what she seems. Twisting together the familiar and the new, this perfectly delicious, captivating and darkly funny tale shows its creators at the peak of their talents.

When the powerhouse team of Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell combine a sort-of Snow White, an almost Sleeping Beauty and a thread of dark magic, you can be assured that the result will be a magical new fable that gives a truly new reading on classic tales.

The Sleeper and the Spindle is not only a thrilling story but a beautiful book to hold and treasure. Lavishly produced and packed with glorious Chris Riddell artwork enhanced with gold metallic paint, this spectacular edition shows that when a unique imagination and unrivalled imagery combine, a physical book is often hard to beat.

Neil Gaiman has written highly acclaimed books for both children and adults and is the first author to have won both the Carnegie and Newbery Medals for the same work – The Graveyard Book. Many of his books, including Coraline and Stardust, have been made into films. He has also written two episodes of Doctor Who (one of which won a Hugo Award) and appeared as himself in The Simpsons.

Chris Riddell is a much loved illustrator and acclaimed political cartoonist. He has won the Nestle Gold Award and two Kate Greenaway Medals. He is co-creator of the hugely successful New York Times bestseller the Edge Chronicles, author and illustrator of the Ottoline books and works for the Observer newspaper.

The Sleeper and the Spindle

by Neil Gaiman

Illustrated by Chris Riddell

Published by Bloomsbury in hardback, October 23, 2014, £12:99

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