King Winter's Birthday

An achingly beautiful, timeless picture book by bestselling author Jonathan Freedland and illustrated by Emily Sutton, inspired by a story from Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz, author of The Passenger

It's King Winter's birthday, and he wants his party to be really special. He asks all of his brothers and sisters to be there: Queen Spring, King Summer and Queen Autumn.

But the wind and the trees whisper a warning, and as the four play magical games, something strange begins to happen outside.

Inspired by a story from Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz, written while he was interned on the Isle of Man during the Second World War, this timeless fairy tale is a celebration of nature's rhythms, and of a chaotic world restored to balance.

A gorgeously illustrated and magical original fairy tale celebrating the seasons

It''s King Winter''s birthday, and he wants it to be really special. He wants all of his brothers and sisters to be there: King Summer, Queen Spring and Queen Autumn.

But the leaves and the trees whisper a warning, and as the four play magical games, something strange begins to happen outside.
This timeless fairy tale is a celebration of nature’s rhythms, and of a chaotic world restored to order. It was adapted from a story by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz, celebrated author of The Passenger. Boschwitz was a refugee from Nazi Germany: he fled, aged 20, in 1935. Young as he was, he understood that it was not safe for someone like him, with a Jewish-born father, to stay. He went from country to country until he made it to England in 1939.


Before long, Britain was at war with Germany, which meant Ulrich was branded an “enemy alien” and so, along with other German Jews, he was interned in a camp in the Isle of Man. There he wrote King Winter’s Birthday, which he called A Fairy Tale. The story was never published, and Boschwitz was tragically killed in an attack by a German submarine when he was being transported from Australia back to England.


This story of the four seasons and a demanding birthday boy lay undiscovered for decades – until now.

• | Author: Jonathan Freedland, Emily Sutton
• | Publisher: Pushkin Press
• | Publication Date: Nov 14, 2024
• | Number of Pages:
• | Language: eng
• | Binding: Hardback
• | ISBN-13: 9781782694670
• | ISBN-10: 1782694676