The White Deer – A Latvian Folk Tale 1973

Listen, and you shall hear,
This riddle is not long:
There was a great White Deer,
Its antlers were so strong.
Seen by everyone,
It was caught by none.

I found this for 50p in a charity shop yesterday. It’s a 1989 printing of a 1973 book. It’s by Lyudmila Kopylova (English translation by Fainna Solasko). The illustration is by Nikolai Kochergin. It was published by Raduga Publishers, Moscow and printed in ‘the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics’. It’s a stapled pamphlet-style book. I don’t know much about Russian books – I don’t know if this was usual at the time.

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The Anatomy Of Costume (1977)

Since I was small I have been interested in historical costume. I loved this book – I would pore over it for hours. I lost somewhere along the way, but I was really pleased to pick it up again recently – and it was just as I remembered it!

It was published in 1977 by Book Club Associates, by permission of Mills & Boon Limited.

It’s illustrated by the late Victor Ambrus – a prolific illustrator and author of both fiction and non fiction. In recent years he worked for Time Team, illustrating reconstructions of archaeological sites and historic events.

I can’t find much about Robert Selbie. The cover notes that he was involved in theatre costume design.

The book starts with Egyptians and ends with the 1960s. Each era is discussed over four pages. The first spread is mainly text with small pictures around the outside. The second spread has a full-page image of a man and a woman on the right. All of the images are labelled and there are relevant quotes too.

These are the Romans:

The Tudors (Very Wolf Hall):

And what was worn in the 1940s:

Gravity is a Mystery 1971

A few weeks ago I came across this in a charity shop.

It’s from a huge and diverse series called Lets Read and Find Out published by A&C Black. Titles ranged from Watch Honey Bees with Me to The Sun: Our Nearest Star.

I spent many years editing Scholastic Children’s Books’ Horrible Science series and I love a bit of illustrated non fiction.

Don Madden’s illustrations are an absolute joy – I gather he illustrated many, if not all, of the titles in this series. I particularly love the cat and dog onlookers/assistants. I hadn’t come across him before, but I shall certainly be looking for more.

Gravity on different planets

Through the Earth