The Odyssey

The paperback of Walker's magnificent edition of Homer's epic story, illustrated with lavish full colour pictures and exquisite black and white silhouettes.

Homer’s great story is retold with simplicity and style by award-winning children’s writer Gillian Cross, and vividly brought to life in Neil Packer’s stunning illustrations. It charts the ten year epic voyage of Odysseus as he returns from the Trojan War to the island of Ithaca. On his journey he encounters all manner of perils, from the man-eating Cyclops and the evil sorceress Circe, to the deadly lure of the Sirens and the wrath of the sea-god Poseidon. Neil Packer’s striking imagination, and his extraordinary use of colour and dramatic silhouettes, capture the terrors of Odysseus’s travels as well as the dangers faced by his wife Penelope and his son Telemachus at home. The illustrations are a perfect complement to Gillian Cross’s beguiling narrative, which transports the reader effortlessly into Homer’s world.

A book to be treasured. Bookseller
This collaboration between the masterful re-telling by Gillian Cross and the sophisticated and stylish art of Neil Packer is yet another brilliant example of [Walker’s] production and editorial values. Really brings the tale of Odysseus to life in accessible and mellifluous prose that would read aloud wonderfully well and the art has real classical resonance . . . an essential purchase to support study of the Greeks The School Librarian

Gillian Cross is an acclaimed author for young people, who won the Carnegie Medal for Wolf, and the Whitbread Award and the Smarties Prize for The Great Elephant Chase. Her Demon Headmaster books were turned into a successful television series by the BBC. "Retelling the Odyssey was a fantastic experience," Gillian says, "and one that taught me a lot about storytelling." Gillian and her husband Martin live in Shaftesbury, Dorset. They have four children. www.gillian-cross.co.uk

Neil Packer is an exceptional new talent in children's books. Graduating from Colchester School of Art, he worked on advertising campaigns before illustrating One Hundred Years of Solitude, The Name of the Rose and Labyrinths for the Folio Society. His illustrations for the Odyssey took many years – "nearly as long," he says, "as Odysseus' journey!" Neil lives in London, NW1, with his son Arvo. Visit his website:

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