The story of Rama is so powerful and so well-loved that many writers have told it again and again over the centuries. And there have been several tellings, for children, of the great Indian epic. But none that adhere faithfully to the oldest version of Rama’s story: Valmiki’s Ramayana, composed in Sanskrit about two and a half thousand years ago.

Arshia Sattar is the best-known translator of Valmiki’s Ramayana. Her translation has never been out of print since it was first published in 1996 and has been reprinted countless times. Now she distils thirty years of working with the great classic into an elegant, beautifully told edition, which is sumptuously illustrated.