If you have ever read the very first edition of Grimms fairy tales (1812/15) you will have noted their distinct lack of embellishment, the clumsiness in their multiple transcriptions and the flippancy of tragic, grotesque and brutal endings. Repunzel is impregnated, Snow White’s real mother is the one trying to kill her, the devils wife outwits her husband in exchange for nightly beatings and cannibalism, child murder and domestic slavery are rife.

The original stories that the Brothers Grimm recorded plunge you into ice cold warnings against stupidity and idleness, devoid of the happy endings and soft focus versions we are used to today and instead mirror the harshness of reality in short sharp cruel bursts.

My tales are inspired by these and have assembled themselves around a series of drawings I had already created. Depictions of uncomfortable creatures placed into family portraiture of bygone eras, fantastical beasts, Jurassic pets, circus freaks and hints of vacuous elements of popular culture all thrown together to create static snapshot narratives that infer moralistic fables amidst chaos and total nonsense. The tale was informed by the drawing and then following each tale is a further illustration created after the story was written.