My First Nursery Book

There has been a growing interest in children’s picture books of the early and mid twentieth century recently and an increasing incidence of republishing ‘retro’ classics such as Clarke Hutton’s A Picture History of Britain and the Sasek This is… books. One of the attractions of the original editions of these books, aside from the wonderful work of the artists, is the freshness of the print quality. Often the artists worked closely with the printing technology, creating their own colour separations to get the most out of the processes available. Sadly, many of the republished editions have been poorly reproduced with washed out colours, losing all of the charm of the originals. All the more pleasing then to find this beautifully produced facsimile of Themerson’s quirky, avant-garde 1947 publication. The author’s highly inventive graphic style is as fresh today as it was 60 years ago and embellishes traditional English tales in a way that sits very comfortably with the modern picture book.