'Illustrating Brideshead Revisited was a privilege'

"People told me they wanted to read the book after seeing my illustrations."

It took Oxford-based artist Weimin He nearly a year to create his "deeply immersive", yet "challenging" project - the first illustrations for a Chinese edition of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, published in August.

Having lived in the city for more than 20 years, he said it was "a privilege" to have depicted local places featured in the novel and to have researched what they were like in the 1920s and 1930s.

He said he had read the book "countless" times both in English and Chinese but had also tried to draw "from the author's perspective".

The first part of the novel follows the Oxford student life of Charles Ryder and the friendship he starts with the eccentric undergraduate Lord Sebastian Flyte.

Many Oxfordshire places are featured such as The Botanic Garden, Christ Church college and Thame.

The book was published by Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House in a limited edition of 500 copies, for which He created 12 charcoal drawings, 12 pen-and-ink drawings and one drawing of Aloysius, Lord Sebastian's teddy bear.

"I tried to do illustrations from the author's perspective, not just from me - I try to understand what the author won't show to readers ... and also capture the atmosphere of nearly 100 years ago."

Other sources of his inspiration were the "fantastic" 1981 TV series and the 2008 film of the same name.

The artist said he had spent most time on a bird's-eye view scene of Charles and Sebastian having a picnic.

He said to him all characters were "quite distinctive" but he liked the relationships between them the most.

"Because I live in Oxford, sometimes I meet eccentric people - [Evelyn Waugh] really depicts people so, so well."

He said the translator Zheng Haiyao, who uses the pen name Kaiti, had initially highlighted about 50 paragraphs for him.

He also chose a moment from the epilogue, when an older Charles Ryder converts to Catholicism.

"That part really touched me, I thought that description [is] the soul of the book," He said.

"It took me a long time to find the right image because the TV series just showed Charles praying and I thought that's something a bit too obvious."

He, who became an artist-in-residence at Green Templeton College in 2018, said he knew the city "very well", as he had "never lived in any other place for so long, even in China".

"The very route I cycle daily into town was the same road Charles and Sebastian drove in their vintage car to the countryside."

He said he would not depict the "really familiar" places mentioned in the book such as the Botley Road, High Street and Broad Street.

"I feel it's something really already inside of me, but for Chinese readers, maybe there's something new."

The artist said he had searched for "vast numbers" of images from the 1920s and 1930s online, hoping to "get as close as possible to the Oxford of that era".

"The translation [is] just excellent and is being welcomed in China."

One comment on his Instagram post reads "Seeing your illustrations makes me feel like reading this book".

"And this really is the best comment I've ever received," He said.