A Scottish illustrator has been credited with boosting the fortunes of the global pencil industry after the surprise success of her "colouring-in" books for grown-ups.

一位苏格兰插画师专门为成年人设计的“填色图书”意外走红，由此推动了全球铅笔产业的迅猛发展。

Johanna Basford's books of elaborately-crafted fill-in drawings have tapped into a huge demand from those seeking to switch off from iPads, laptops and computer games.

乔汉娜·贝斯福设计的一系列填色手绘书大都做工精致，并且极大地迎合了部分当代人的需求，为他们成功脱离平板、笔记本和电脑游戏找到了一个新出口。

Now, having already topped the Amazon best-seller lists, her tomes are also giving a massive boost in global sales for high-quality pencils, as colouring-in fans compete to make masterpieces of their work.

目前，她的作品已位居亚马逊畅销排行榜榜首。大批填图爱好者们为了创作出自己的杰作都竞相购买铅笔，从而带动了全球优质铅笔的销量。

Far from being a casualty themselves of the digital age, pencil manufacturers are now struggling to cope with demand, with Faber Castell, the world's largest wood pencil manufacturer, revealing that it was now having to run extra shifts at its factories.

在数字时代，铅笔生产商并没有想象中的悠闲，相反，他们想尽办法提高产量以满足庞大的市场需求。世界最大的木质铅笔生产商菲博卡斯特近日透露，他们的工厂目前仍在加班加点生产铅笔。

"People like colouring-in because they are fed up with digital," Ms Basford, 32, told The Sunday Telegraph. "There is something nice about picking up a pencil and a pen. You are not going to get interrupted by Twitter, and there is also a childhood nostalgia element to it. The last time you did a bit of colouring in, you probably weren't about thinking about mortgage or Brexit."

32岁的贝斯福女士对《星期日电讯报》说道：“人们之所以喜欢涂色画本，是因为他们厌倦了数码产品。拿起笔来画画是一件让人愉快的事情。这样你就不会被推特上的消息打扰，而且还能让你回忆起小时候的美好时光。专心填色画画的你，也可以暂时不被住房贷款和（英国）退欧这样的事情困扰了。”

Rather like other recent middle-class crazes like allotments, ukelele playing, and home-brewing and baking, colouring-in appeals to a nostalgia for a simpler, analogue era.

近期，中产阶级盛行着各种活动，如侍弄小菜园、弹奏由克里里、自制葡萄酒、家庭烘培等等。但与这些不同，涂色手绘更多地是营造一种淳朴、简单的怀旧氛围。

However, while it might be healthier than tucking into a home-made sponge cake inspired by the Great British Bake Off, there is still an element of a guilty pleasure to it.

然而，尽管比起由英国家庭烘培大赛掀起的自制松糕热，涂色作画好似更为健康，但人们在享受绘画愉悦的同时，仍存有一丝罪恶感。

For not everyone approves of university-educated adults dedicating their spare hours to a pastime that—in the view of critics anyway—ranks somewhere below puzzler books and Ludo.

上过大学的人应该在这种消遣上花时间吗？并非所有人都认同——至少在批评家眼里是这样的：涂色画画比不上拼字和鲁多游戏。

Leading the chorus of disapproval is the comedian Russell Brand, who produced a recent sketch entitled "Adult Colouring Books: Is This the Apocalypse?"

喜剧演员拉塞尔·布兰德是反对这种娱乐方式的主力，他为此画了一幅素描，题为“成人涂色书：是灾难吗？”

"What has turned us into terrified divs that want to live in childish stupors?" he raged, accusing colouring-in fans of being scared of the modern world.

“是什么让我们变成了胆小的巨婴？”他气愤地说道，指责涂色书迷们是在逃避现实。

And what did Ms Basford say about detractors like Mr Brand? "It's a case of whatever makes you happy, there's no right or wrong about it," she said. "Who knows, maybe he just hasn't found the right colouring-in book yet."

那么贝斯福女士如何看待布兰德等人的评价呢？“这件事只与快乐有关，和对错无关，”她说。“谁知道呢，也许只是因为他还没找到他喜欢的那种涂色书而已。”

As Ms Basford saw it: "Colouring-in fans just love their pens and pencils, they become real artists. I get messages from people in New Zealand and Australia saying there are big shortages now. It's really nice that something I was passionate about is now shared worldwide."

她认为：“热衷于涂色作画的人就是单纯地喜欢画笔，这时的他们是真正的艺术家。我听说新西兰和澳大利亚的铅笔市场现在供不应求。我热爱的东西能够被全世界的人喜欢，真是太棒了。”

Ms Basford's first three books of drawings have now sold some 16 million copies worldwide, with three million alone in China. A new one, Magical Jungle will come out in April.

贝斯福女士最早发行的三本绘画书现在在全球已经售出了1600万册，光是中国市场销售量就达300万册。新书《魔法森林》将于四月份出版。

"Colouring-in" clubs have formed worldwide, meeting in cafes and online to compare their works, and keeping the lead in the pencil of the stationery industry.

世界各地纷纷成立了“涂色”俱乐部，会员们会在咖啡馆或网上比较各自的作品。这也促成了铅笔在整个文具市场的销售领先地位。