Little Prince

One of my favourite books since young! Every chapter is a revelation, an original thought, and makes you think.
I have an old record still in French of it. As nice as it is in translation, nothing comes near the original! Once I read this book I was eager to read anything else the author had written.
Sad how he ended, and also, mysterious, lost in the sky...

One of the greatest parables ever written...an enchanting story of the eponymous hero's quest for the meaning of life. My favourite encounter, as our hero visits numerous planets in his search, is the businessman who thinks he owns the stars and spends his life counting them. The lamplighter's planet is perhaps the saddest; the poor man says 'good morning' and then 'good night' every few minutes because his home is revolving so fast. I read this whenever I feel gloomy; it's totally life-affirming and fun.

And the drawing of the snake who has swallowed an elephant is about as good a description of what it is to be a child that has ever been invented. I have the recording of this read by Peter Ustinov - it has sustained me on many a dark night.

I have always loved the idea of 'taming', as explained by the fox.

Also, I have often used the snake / elephant description as an analogy to how I look now I'm getting a bit of a belly on me.

Hahaha!!

Absolutely! It's such a wonderful description... Is the Peter Ustinov recording easily available?

I'm not sure - my copy is vinyl double album complete with scratchy bits. I remember standing in the record shop with my cash trying to decide between the Little Prince and the latest Van DerGraaf Generator. I made the right choice!