HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE: NOVEL EDITION

I had seen Rad Rux's other moving castle, but this one follows the storybook rather than the film. Out in the Forest he raised a tall, dark stone tower on great jointed legs made to look like boulders. The battlements up top and the strange face at the door give it the sort of appearance you remember from an old illustrated novel.

The inside is much warmer than the stone outside suggests. Books, candles and bottles crowd the furnishings, while a blue fire lights the hearth. Rux has fitted a lived-in room inside an unlikely shape, and that takes more thought than simply making something large enough to notice.

I am content to leave the storybook magic in the storybook. What interests me here is the patient building behind it, and the care that makes a pile of stone feel like a home. A man who spends his days composing music would know a thing or two about bringing an old tale to life in his own way.