Barbara Jones is becoming increasingly collectable. At least that’s the message I’m getting from eBay. We recently watched a whole collection of BBC schools booklets go past; most went for one or two pounds if they sold at all. The one exception was this.
By Barbara Jones, it sold for £21.50.
All of which preamble is mainly so I can convey my pleasure at getting this for just one squid.
It pretty much had to be by Barbara Jones given how similar it is to her Woodentops book, but it also does us the favour of saying so inside.
Most of the pages inside have been coloured in – I was going to say sadly, but it isn’t really, it’s just the book being used as it was meant to be. One or two were missed though, so you can get an idea of what the drawings are like.
Leafing through it, I am struck by what hardworking farmers the Woodentop family are. They haul the hay in with just a horse-drawn cart, collect eggs and get up early for the milking.
All of which would have been quite normal then, but seems like a long-lost rural idyll from the vantage point of today. And now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some colouring-in to do.