Music depresses me.

Dancing distresses me.

Everything turns out wrong.

That’ s why, the whole day long,

I feel so gloomy.

Inspired by Ludwig Bechstei’s nineteenth-century poem, Axel Scheffler has created a set of delightfully dark depictions of misanthropic misery. Julia Donaldson, Axel’s collaborator on The Gruffalo, has penned a wry, witty new translation of the original German. The result is a triumph of negativity, in the macabre yet merry spirit of the late, great Edward Gorey. Superbly miserable, brilliantly curmudgeonly and oddly cheering, gloominess has never been so appealing.

If you have ever felt that winter is cold and dreary but spring comes too soon each year, or that you’d rather just pull up the bedclothes and turn out the light, then The Gloomster is the book for you.