Haunted House

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Jan Pieńkowski, who has died aged 85, was a most original illustrator, writer and designer of pop-up books, whose Polish childhood and experiences as a wartime refugee fed into his mesmerising work. He published more than 140 books for children and described the essence of his prodigious output simply as telling stories in pictures. One or two critics questioned the frightening nature of many of his picture books, and he certainly had a tendency towards the macabre and gothic. Another inspiration for Pieńkowski was comics. As he put it, “the violence and hyperbole of the Old Testament stories found an echo in Desperate Dan and Dennis the Menace. They also gave me my palette.” He insisted that children like to be frightened in a safe place, although he did admit that some Slavic folk tales are pretty terrifying. In October 2009, Pieńkowski was a guest on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs. During the programme he discussed his childhood spent roaming Europe, his dead infant sister, his bipolarity and his collection of discarded garments (which he would wear himself or give away to charity shops). [6] Pieńkowski is probably best known for illustrating the Meg and Mog books written by Helen Nicoll, and for his pop-up books including Haunted House, Robot, Dinner Time, Good Night and 17 others.

Rural life on a farm was cut short, however, when the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939. The family moved to Warsaw, where his mother’s family lived, and his father worked briefly as a bailiff. When Jan was five years old, Jerzy, who had helped organise resistance groups, had to go underground for a year.Jan Michel Pieńkowski is a Polish-born British illustrator and author of children's books. He is probably best known for his Meg and Mog books with writer Helen Nicoll and for his pop-up books, including Haunted House (winner of the 1980 Kate Greenaway Medal), Robot, Dinner Time, Good Night and seventeen others. Haunted House ( Heinemann, 1979) earned Pieńkowski his second Greenaway Medal (no one has won three). [9] The librarians describe it as "the house of petrifying pop-ups". [9] The pop-up book was so successful that Intervisual Books Inc. reproduced the book as part of its 1992 Annual Report. The report noted "Haunted House was first published in 1979, and has sold 1,083,366 copies, in 13 languages, to nearly 30 countries worldwide." [10]

Although he was studying literature, even then Pieńkowski was busy illustrating for Granta magazine and designing posters for university theatre productions – in the process developing a lifelong interest in stage design. Before Cambridge, Pieńkowski had spent a couple of months in Rome, one of his favourite cities, where he discovered opera. This love of the arts was a constant in his life. Jan Pienkowski La Maison Hantée, Jan Pienkowski Spookhuis, Jan Pienkowski: Pension zum ewigen Frieden

Pieńkowski had a lifelong interest in stage design. He was commissioned to provide designs for Théâtre de Complicité, Beauty and the Beast for the Royal Ballet, and Sleeping Beauty at Disneyland Paris. Mog, the stripy cat from the Meg and Mog stories. Pieńkowski said that he took his palette from comic strips such as Desperate Dan and Dennis the Menace. Photograph: Sarah Lee/the Guardian Jan Pieńkowski with Helen Nicoll, with whom he made the Meg and Mog books from 1972 until her death in 2012. Photograph: Frank Baron/the Guardian