Tottie: The Story of a Dolls' House
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Cover Story
On our cover this month we feature an illustration from The Swineherd, a picture book version of the Andersen fairy tale by artist Lisbeth Zwerger. (Neugebauer Press, 0 907234 127, £3.95 from A. and C. Black). We are grateful to A. and C. Black for help in using this illustration. The roundel used on the Hans Andersen pages is from the wood engraving by Gwen Raverat for Four Tales, translated by R. P. Keigwin, C.U.P. (1935). It and the Punch cartoon on page 16 appear in Brian Alderson's pamphlet Hans Christian Andersen and his Eventyr in England.
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Tottie: The Story of a Dolls' House
Illustrated by Joanna Jamieson
Read this elegantly-presented book before the children, if you've time, and see how a writer's craft can unfold a tale that --- if less skillfully handled --- may seem precious, outdated. The first chapters are miniature masterpieces and Miss Godden's language ('Come fog, come fine, no one could be unkind to Apple') gives children the sense of a gentle, bygone age. The tale of Tottie and the Plantaganet family's move from shoe box to palatial Dolls' House has proved popular in its recent T. V. version and this will be welcome to those who enjoyed that. Well worth serialising for six to nines. The harsher edges aren't smoothed over which is the sign of a fine writer. The pictures, poised and angular, are just right.
