Some Christmas Reading & Odhams Gift Books

After spending nearly a week reading a book which really wasn’t worth the effort, I turned to seasonal reading and read very quickly: No Holly for Miss Quinn, Miss Read; The Christmas Child by Hesba Stretton and The Christmas Village. I’ve nearly finished Trisha Ashley’s Twelve Days of Christmas, which is so full of delicious food that it’s almost (but not quite) reconciled me to cooking Christmas dinner for the forty second time. These were all re-reads and this post is not about them but about children’s gift books.

When I was very young I had the run of the gift books which my mother had been given as a child. There was the Bessie Pease Alice, the Harry Theakston Water Babies and best of all, the Odhams treasury books. These had various titles: The Golden Wonder Book, The Children’s Wonder Book, The Favourite Wonder Book etc. They were packed with stories and pictures by famous authors and artists. These 1930s books were lavishly produced. They had an onlaid picture on the front cover, dramatic full colour endpapers and lots of plates. I have one with colour plates by Anne Anderson.

How I must have pored over those books. The Affair at Noah’s Ark! Miss Prune and Miss Prism at Veryneat Villa! The illustrations to those stories and many others are burned into my brain. One story I liked particularly was The Glass Peacock, which I’ve used for the header picture. It’s very short and tells of poor children in London at Christmas time. The heroine is Anna-Mariar, who has a little brother called Willyum. We know nothing about their parents, nor why they are so poor. Anna-Mariar is an unselfish little thing and the friend of all; you ought to hate her but you can’t.
( what happens )