The Happy King was first published in 1986 in a collection of stories and poems called “When Did You Last Wash Your Feet?” by Michael Rosen (ISBN: 978-0233978598).

Michael Rosen is one of the best known and most loved writers for children in Britain. He has written more than 140 books. He served as Children’s Laureate from 2007 to 2009 and is also a radio and television presenter and political columnist.

In 2021 Michael was awarded the JM Barrie Lifetime Achievement Award.

Michael Rosen owns all the copyrights of The Happy King. If you want to publish a translation of the story or make a derivative work please contact his agent Charles Walker at United Agents.

In 2011 the Arab Spring started when Mohamed Bouazizi (known as Basbousa) exasperated and angered by an argument with a municipal inspector over his vegetable stall, set himself on fire in the town of Sidi Bouzid, 300 kilometres (190 miles) south of Tunis.

When Paul Youlten, an Englishman living in Spain, read about Basbousa’s death and how Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was ruling Tunisia like a tyrannical king, he remembered Michael Rosen’s story and thought the Happy King should be read by children all over the world. Paul set about collecting translations. There are currently 16 different language versions:

Arabic

Chinese (Mandarin)

Estonian

Farsi

French

Georgian

German

Greek

Hungarian

Italian

Polish

Romanian

Russian

Tagalog

Ukrainian

If you would like to translate the story into your own language please contact Paul, @The_Happy_king on Twitter, for the latest advice for translators.

We are missing some priority languages which are spoken by millions of children:

• Bengali
• Hindi
• Japanese
• Marathi
• Portuguese
• Spanish
• Telugu
• Turkish
• Western Punjabi
• Wu Chinese

There are also languages that are widely spoken in counties still ruled by authoritatinan tyrants, including:

It would be great if you could help us with more translations.