A Finder's Magic.

UK,slim 8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.FINE/FINE.No owner inscrptn,and no price-clip to dw/dj. Bright,clean,matt,white background with colour pictorial artwork by Helen Craig,illustrated dw/dj,with black,green and gilt letters; with some minimal shelf-wear and creases to edges and corners - no nicks or tears present.Both head+foot of spine/backstrip of dw/dj minimally bumped with reciprocal creasing,and majority of other creasing is to top edges.Top+fore-edges bright and clean; contents bright,tight,clean,solid and sound - no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corners - possibly unread? Bright,crisp,clean, wrap-around brown+white pencil/crayon illustration to white background paper-covered boards,with miniscule bumping and reciprocal creasing to foot of the spine/backstrip,with all four corners minimally bumped,and immaculate green and a green dog repeated motif'ed illustrated endpapers.UK,slim 8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn,8-125pp [part paginated] includes 10 chapters - each with an unpaginated,full-page b/w line illustration separator page,10 full-page,full colour line illustration and 4 similar double-page illustrations - all by Helen Craig - throughout the text and the book.Further b/w line illustrations in page corners, border edges and text block etc. including a single full-page b/w line illustration.Plus [unpaginated] half-title page,full-page,full-colour frntis to it's recto,b/w line illustrated vignetted title page, similarly b/w line vignetted illustrator's dedication page and an unpaginated last page.
Story was written for Pearce's two grandsons,Nat and Will - the hero's full name is an anagram of the two of theirs put together - to be illustrated by their other grandmother,Helen Craig,as a long-awaited and long-wanted collaboration.'A Finder's Magic' is the last book Philippa wrote before she died in 2006.
Philippa Pearce,Britsh author born Ann Philippa Pearce in Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire,in 1920.Widely regarded as one of the 20thC's greatest and best-loved of children's writers.Studied at Girton College,Cambridge,subsequently working as a civil servant,a BBC radio producer and a children's book editor.She won the Carnegie Medal for her second book,'Tom's Midnight Garden'(1958),and subsequently had produced a steady stream of novels,story collections and picture books.
Helen Craig,born August,1934,in London,but then moved to the country just prior to the outbreak of WW2.
An English children's book illustrator and author,probably best known for creating the Angelina Ballerina series of children's books in collaboration with the writer Katharine Holabird.She started illustrating children's books in 1970.The first book she illustrated was 'Wishing Gold' by Robert Nye (London.Macmillan,1970).Helen's first book,both as author and artist,was 'The Mouse House ABC',published in 1977 and 'A Number of Mice' (London,Aurum Press1978),followed.And then with co-author Sarah Hayes,she created "Bear",a popular children's character who appears in 'This Is The Bear' (London,1986),' This Is The Bear and the Picnic Lunch'(London,Walker Books,1988),and 'This Is The Bear and the Scary Night'(London,Walker Books,1991).
Helen comes from an artistic family: her great grandmother was the celebrated actress Ellen Terry; her grandfather was Edward Gordon Craig,the famous stage designer and innovative wood engraver.
To date she has worked on in excess of 60 children's books and received several prestigious awards.Three of her books have been chosen for the British Book Design and Production exhibitions,of which Angelina Ballerina,won a category award in 1990.
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