Childhood Treasures!

by Anna Campbell

2014 is going to be a year of many changes for me, not least the fact that I'm putting the family home on the market and moving to something much smaller and much more central.

Please take note of those two words 'family home.' That means family junk reaching right back into childhood for my brother and I. So downsizing is a mammoth job.

So far I've tackled a lot of the easy stuff - books, papers, sheet music, CDs. Some of it in fact, has been really pleasurable to see again, especially the childhood books. This month on my website in My Favorite Things, I talk about some books from the 1930s that my mother won as academic prizes. Check them out!

Today, I'm talking about a real treasure that brought back so many memories. THE GIFT BOOK OF NURSERY RHYMES was my baby brother's book (his name is neatly inscribed inside in my father's lovely handwriting) but I placed dibs on it pretty much straight away. You can't see it in the picture above, but I wrote my name all over the cover - I was a possessive young wench!

The minute I opened this book I remembered my childhood fascination with the beautiful historical costumes in the illustrations. I really think this book may have in the end resulted in me writing historical romance!

The illustrations are the work of two English twin sisters, Janet and Anne Grahame Johnstone, who were active in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s until Anne was tragically killed in a fire. You can read about their amazing partnership here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_and_Anne_Grahame_Johnstone

So I thought today, I'd share some of these beautiful illustrations with you. I think the costumes are just exquisite!

So did you have any books illustrated by the Grahame Johnstone sisters? Perhaps even this one? What was your favorite childhood book?