I have always loved fairy tales.
I’ve tried relentlessly over the years to get lad to like them too, and have almost succeeded, as he does appear partial to a magical yarn or two as part of our repertoire of bedtime reading.
I blame Janet and Anne Grahame Johnstone.
I had their Gift Book of Fairy Tales when I was very small and pored over it for years. I loved the illustrations.
So, it was utterly inevitable that when I stumbled across the Fairyland Annual from 1974 for just £1, it would end up in my possession.
I actually think the lovely cover illustration could even be by the aforementioned Janet and Anne, although they are not credited.
The illustrations inside, however, most definitely aren’t.
Nevertheless, I do rather like them. They remind me a bit of my first childhood comic, Twinkle.
There are a superb array of piggy-nosed princesses and pixies and other big-eyed inhabitants of Fairyland.
I’m not quite sure what I’ll do with this little gem. I could repurpose the illustrations. But probably it’ll end up on my bookshelf.
Now and again I might pore over the illustrations, in a nostalgic sort of a way.
But one thing’s for sure – I won’t be reading it to lad.
If I even remotely entertained the thought of that, I’d have to be away with the fairies. ♥
Sweet find! I love the cover! Yes, if lad is getting too old for walks, I imagine he’d be less than enthusiastic about such a book. 😀 One of my favorites was a mother goose book, which I still have. But I purchased another (also vintage, but a later edition) copy so that I wouldn’t be too uptight about the kids handling mine.
I have that twinkle too…loved it…read it /looked at it at night when supposed to be asleep in bed…had a little torch to read under the covers with…bestest daisy j x
I just re-bought Bramley Hedge for my daughter…aged 31.
Love the pictures. I used to read Twinkle when I was a small too.
I used to read Twinkle in the late 60s / very early 70s. I had no idea until I looked for a picture of it online for this post, that it continued well into the 1980s! I think the very early illustrations are the cutest though.
Another twinkle fan from the 70’s here. That image took me right back.
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