Picture books are not only for the very young. They can be appreciated on many levels for their language, playfulness and images. Wordless picture books are a wonderful way to delve into a story and many are sophisticated interpretations of story-lines we know well. Artist Thomas Aquinas Maguire’s version of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Wild Swans is a stunningly designed wordless concertina-style book which also doubles as a very long frieze. The frieze can be looked at completely if you have a very long floor space, or the pages can be turned just like a standard book. Presented in a box, the detailed illustrations in black and white are fittingly dreamlike and atmospheric. The fairy-tale is told in an accompanying booklet. It is the story of a young princess driven out of her home by the new Queen, a witch who has cast a spell on her brothers. The brothers turned to swans can only be returned to human form if the young princess knits seven shirts from nettles and keeps an oath of seven years’ silence. As our world becomes increasingly screen-based, it's exciting to encounter beautiful tactile objects. {Reviewed by STELLA}