Like all the best fairy tales The Ogre that ate children by Fausto Gilberto begins: “Once upon a time there was a horrible nasty Ogre”.

After Rockstars, the quirky humour of Gilberti’s drawings is back to tell us a story for children and adults about an overgrown ogre that loves to eat children. Not all children though. Only gluttonous ones that devour sugar, sweets, chips and fizzy drinks. The stick-like figures typical of Gilberti’s style are the spindly protagonists of an entertaining story where monochrome black is interrupted here and there by the odd touch of red, reflecting how the humour of the story and its illustrations create a twist in the tale of a wicked but very clumsy ogre, struggling with a ‘diet’ that would make even the greediest child healthy and balanced. The message to lovers of junk food then is to be careful what you eat, otherwise you may end up in the ogre’s larder!

Fausto Gilberti is an artist. He is skinny, with large staring eyes, a flat, static body and a surprised and bewildered expression . His favourite place is the kitchen, where he draws day and night on a table once used for making salami. Born in Brescia, he is married to Laura and has two children, Emma and Martino.