The Snow Queen

The original adventure to the palace of the Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen, illustrated by the legendary European artist Bernadette Watts.

When a young boy’s heart is pierced by a splinter of glass and turned to ice, he is taken away by the Snow Queen. His closest friend, a young girl named Gerda, goes on a courageous journey to save him. Her kindness and loving nature convince everyone she meets to help her on her travels, and at last she reaches the palace of the Snow Queen where she restores his heart and frees him from the Queen’s icy grip. 

Stunning illustrations bring new life to this unabridged story that has inspired a new generation of young readers, just as it has for over a century.

Bernadette Watts was born in Northampton, England, in 1942. From an early age her father always ensured that she had paper to draw on despite its scarcity in the post-war years.

At the age of six she made her first trip to the cinema to see Walt Disney’s “Pinocchio,” from that moment on it was clear to her that she wanted to draw. This dream started to turn to reality when she received a place to study at Maidstone College of Art where her teachers included Brian Wildsmith, William Stobbs and, later, an unknown young artist by the name of David Hockney.

In 1967 Bernadette went to the Frankfurt Bookfair for the first time. Publisher Dimitri Sidjanski was enchanted with her work and in 1968, her first book, “Little Red Riding Hood,” was published by NordSüd. To this day it remains in print and is among her most loved. Over the next four decades there followed an array of books illustrated by Bernadette, many of them Grimm or Andersen fairy tales but also some self-penned stories. To this day Bernadette is full of ideas for new projects although she increasingly draws inspiration from the everyday flora and fauna around her home in Kent, UK.