Meg Murry, bespectacled, gangly and an outcast at school, desperately misses her father, a quantum physicist who has mysteriously disappeared. But when she and her precocious little brother, Charles Wallace, meet ancient shape-shifters Mrs Whatsit, Mrs Who and Mrs Which, they and their friend Calvin O’Keefe are swept away on an adventure across time and space on a rescue mission.
So begins A Wrinkle In Time – a deliciously fast-paced blend of fantasy, suspense thriller, and science fiction, that brims with rich wordplay, clever, diverse, characters, and a plot that affirms the power of individuality and embracing our differences.
Illustration by Sam Richwood from The Folio Society edition of A Wrinkle in Time. Illustration © Sam Richwood 2018.
The first book in Madeleine L’Engle’s Time Quintet, Wrinkle is now an avowed classic but it was only published in 1962, after years of rejection letters. Something which, in her introduction to the Folio Society’s edition of the novel, Meg Rosoff, touches on. Rossoff notes that originally, L’Engle’s tale was thought to be “too odd, too unruly, too difficult to pigeonhole, too full of ideas, too scratchy, too ahead of its time. Too different. In short, too good.” It’s an accusation that has dogged the best children’s authors, from Roald Dahl to J.K. Rowling.
L’Engle well knew, that Wrinkle was a story that people of all ages would love. “You have to write the book that wants to be written” she is quoted as saying. “And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.”
Illustration by Sam Richwood from The Folio Society edition of A Wrinkle in Time. Illustration © Sam Richwood 2018.
This March, Disney’s hotly anticipated film adaptation brings L’Engle’s tale to the big screen. (They also adapted it in 2003 for a TV special.) However, for book fans, the Folio Society’s new edition offers the chance to read the story for yourself before the imagery of the film overwhelms the words – and worlds – on the page.
A series of six colourful paintings by Sam Richwood bring the tale to life with a bold colour palate and nostalgic imagery that conjures up memories of children’s books from the golden age of book publishing.
Illustration by Sam Richwood from The Folio Society edition of A Wrinkle in Time. Illustration © Sam Richwood 2018.
The edition is bound in cloth, blocked with a design, again, by Sam Richwood.
With Disney’s A Wrinkle In Time is set for a 23rd March 2018 UK release.
The Folio Society edition of A Wrinkle In Time, written by Madeleine L’Engle, introduced by Meg Rosoff and illustrated by Sam Richwood is exclusively available from www.foliosociety.com.