Little Prince

JANE ACKROYD

Little Prince

The Story of Little Prince from Jane Ackroyd
I made the original Little Prince in around 1985 for a large pedestrian area in the centre of Manchester. The piece was commissioned by the Greater Manchester Council. It was about 25 feet high, made of steel and powder-coated. Photo of me with the Thorpe Meadow piece circa 1985. The full-scale sculpture was blown up in the IRA bombing of 1996.

The piece in Thorpe Meadow is the quarter-scale maquette that I made for the larger piece. It is based on the book “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. He began writing the book during World War 11. The novel is about his nostalgia for childhood and his desire to return to France in a time of peace. The Little Prince dies for a rose, a fragile sentimental flower on his tiny planet that he fell in love with as a child.

The “Little Prince” teaches that the responsibility demanded by relationships with others leads to a greater understanding and appreciation of one’s responsibilities to the world in general. The story of the Prince and his rose is a parable about the nature of love. It is about the open mindedness of children. He is a wanderer who relentlessly asks questions and is willing to engage in the invisible, secret mysteries of the universe. The novel suggests that such inquisitiveness is the key to understanding and to happiness¹.