Shaun Tan: ‘We’re always only seeing a thin skin of reality’

I half imagine that when I meet him, Shaun Tan will be a diminutive Australian Willy Wonka, all hat and cane and colourful outfits, with a strange and wondrous creature by his side. It isn’t disappointing exactly to find he’s a perfectly ordinary, softly spoken middle-aged man in a puffer jacket and faded black denim jeans; it just needs the slightest adjustment in perspective.