The Phoenix of Persia

Retold for a modern audience, the story of The Phoenix of Persia is one of the ancient epic stories of Shahnameh (The Book of Kings) by the 10th century poet Ferdowsi, reminiscent of the classic fairytale Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. In this ancient Persian, a king awaits the birth of his son but when the child is born with white hair and skin, he is banished to the forest. The young babe is brought up by the phoenix Simorgh until his father realizes the love he has lost and seeks his return. A QR code is included to download Iranian music to accompany the text.

Sally Pomme Clayton is a pioneering storyteller and writer, who has published more than 10 children’s books. As author of The Phoenix of Persia, she has a long connection with the Iranian epic Shahnameh, haven written resource material about Shahnameh and storytelling in Iran for The British Library. She wrote the text ’Prince Zal and the Simorgh’ based on Shahnameh for composer David Bruce and The London Philharmonic Orchestra (2012), which she performed with the orchestra at The Royal Festival Hall as well as delivering workshops for schools. Amin Hassanzadeh Sharif was born in Tehran in 1979 and is an award-winning illustrator whose work has been published worldwide. Amin will illustrate The Phoenix of Persia using his distinctive ’sgraffito’ technique (from the Italian word sgraffire which means ＂to scratch＂). His workshops with children explore this technique which involves scratching through a layer of still-wet paint to reveal what’s underneath. His work is influenced by centuries of artistic representations of Ferdowsi’s epic Shahnameh, from exquisitely detailed Persian miniatures to contemporary illustrations. He currently resides in California.