In December 1844 Dr. Heinrich Hoffmann, a Frankfurt doctor, couldn't find a suitable book to give his three-year-old son as a Christmas present. Instead he bought a blank exercise book and set out to write and draw what was to become his world-famous picture book. Hoffmann filled his book with stories and pictures that he had invented to try to put his frightened young patients at their ease. After its publication in 1845, the book's popularity continued to grow and it has been published in thousands of editions throughout the world. It has even been made into a brilliant stage play, Shockheaded Peter, which sees all the characters of Hoffmann's original stories brought dazzlingly and gruesomely to life: 'a Rabelaisian feast of magical and rare theatrical delights.' Time Out