Introducing Phileas Fox and his brave friends! After rescuing princess Aouda they flee through the jungle on the back of Kiouni the elephant. This is my offering for the Jules Verne Exhibition.

I chose to read “Around the world in eighty days” thinking I would be able to illustrate a hot air ballon. I very much enjoyed reading the book but realised there is no actual hot air balloon in it!!! I even read back over it to check if I had somehow missed it. However by the end of the story I felt very familiar with the characters and the transportation method that I remembered best was when they ride on the back of the Indian elephant.

Phileas Fogg is portrayed as a very refined English Gentleman full of mystery and intrigue, a gentleman who knows about the world yet a man of few words. He is very honest and yet he can be cunning (he hijacks a vessel in a last attempt to make it back to Britain) and we are constantly encouraged to wonder how he has made his fortune. Could there be more to this seemingly sincere gentleman? It struck me one evening he would make a very good gentleman fox. I can’t wait to see the exhibition and all the different illustrations!