Pienkowski's Polish fairy tales

Image: Candlewick Press, Muchomor (Poland)

Pienkowski's career has brought him to Buckingham Palace for an audience with the Queen, and he has been been published as far afield as Japan.

But it wasn't until this autumn that he was finally published in Poland, the country of his birth.

Image: Muchomor

Basnie Polskie (Polish fairy tales) which was released simultaneously with the original English version, Glass Mountain: Tales from Poland, features a selection of the country's best-loved legends.

All of the illustrations in the book were created using cut-paper, a method which Pienkowski first fell under the spell of during the 1944 Warsaw Rising, when a Polish insurgent attempted to cheer up children taking shelter in a Warsaw cellar.

Image: Candlewick Press

''He started to cut out little figures of animals, and he was very clever at it,'' Pienkowski told Polish Radio correspondent Nick Hodge.

''And that made a tremendous impression on me, and I thought, well I can do that.''

Meanwhile, David Walser has confessed to being especially smitten with the legend of Master Twardowski (Pan Twardowski).

''It's a great story – selling your soul to the devil is a wonderful idea,'' he said.

Glass Mountain: Tales from Poland, was published by Candlewick Press, and Basnie Polskie by Muchomor.