The Bluebell Story Book
One of a series of books published by Blackie & Son in the 1930s. The front cover illustration and endpapers are by Cicely Mary Barker. Colour frontis by Mabel Lucie Attwell and numerous black-and-white illustrations by Helen Jacobs, Ruth Cobb and Rosa C Petherick. Hardback book with 36 pages. First story the sick doll's diary, other stories include kind teddy and nanny and the circus. Presentation plate on front pastedown - ‘Edinburgh Galloway Association prize for excellence in class work awarded to Doris Dowdney, 1st July 1932'. Can you imagine how excited Doris must have been when she was awarded this lovely book?
Spring has officially arrived in the UK , and woodlands are already carpeted in cobalt blue. The bluebell season is fleeting so if you don’t want to miss seeing these lovely flowers pay a trip to the Woodland Trust website which has the world’s largest bluebell database.
My hundred thousand bells of blue, the splendour of the spring, they carpet all the woods anew with royalty of sapphire hue; The Primrose is the Queen, 't is true, but surely I am King! Ah yes, the peerless woodland King! From The Complete Book of the Flower Fairies by Cicely Mary Barker.
This pretty bluebell postcard is illustrated by Mabel Lucie Attwell; God must have known how sad it would be for a little child in a garden fair, to wander through its walks and ways and never to touch a flower there - and so he planted his woods about - with flowers for the little ones - everywhere!
Do bluebells grow in your part of the world?
Sharon from Sharon’s Sunlit Memories has written a lovely post about another book published by Blackie, possibly from the same series as The Bluebell Story book. Sharon ’s book is called “How Nice!” but it’s much more than nice – it’s beautiful.