Strong's books are hugely popular with young children with their breezy, daft exuberance

His books crackle with good humour and invention

King of comedy

His books are preposterously entertaining

Every now and then a book comes along that's unusual, compelling and deeply absorbing yet is so tragically simple, it leaves an indelible trace on the memory. The Year the Gypsies Came is one of these

All demand to be read in translation of the originals and not sanitized retellings. Here, by examining letters, journals, annotations and posthumously unavailable papers, Zipes found some hitherto untranslated "ironic and macabre fables, humorous anecdotes, stories about the crusades, Norwegian legend, one 'feminist' tale among other things