Asterix and the new translator

The adventures of Asterix the Gaul have been amusing British readers since 1969, thanks to the brilliant translations of Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge. Last year, Adriana Hunter took over the job of converting the jokes, puns and celebrated character names into English. We talk to her about what the process involves

The adventures of Asterix the Gaul were first translated into English in 1969 by Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge and published by the Leicester-based, Brockhampton Press. The pair’s work was celebrated for maintaining the sparkling wit of Albert Uderzo and René Goscinny’s original comics, while successfully converting many of the allusions, puns and characters’ names into another language. When Hockridge died in 2013, Bell continued to work on the series alone until she retired in 2016, following the publication of the 36th instalment, Asterix and the Missing Scroll, the year before. The mantle has since been passed to translator Adriana Hunter whose work on her debut Asterix book, Asterix and the Chariot Race, was published in the UK in November last year.