THE STORY OF A FARM.

UK,slim,landscape 12mo HB,no dw/dj,as issued,1st edn. FINE-. No owner inscrptn,no dw/dj - as issued, and no price-removal from rear board.Bright,crisp, clean,sharp-cornered,wrap-around glossy,colour pictorial illustrated boards,with capitalised black-lettered title and other black-lettered author name to front board; spine/backstrip with capitalised,black-lettered author+title+publisher's name,rear panel with continuation of colour illustration.Negligible shelf-wear,bumping,creasing to edges and corners – a pair of near parallel tiny nicks/abrasions to lower front+ rear board's edges - but no other nicks,tears or splits present.Top+fore-edges clean; contents bright,tight, clean,solid and sound -near pristine - no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corner tips,appears unread,other than my own collation.The presence of the half-page flaps have caused a fold impression to pages without the half-page through to both front+ rear plain pale green endpapers and respective pastedowns.UK,slim landscape 12mo HB,no dw/dj as issued,1st edn,includes 40pp [unpaginated and excluding free endpapers] colour pictorial illustrated pages - 16 double-pages of which have a reversible illustrated half-page insert,and a single-page,colour pictorial illustrated title page,a Contents list/table with reverse of same with colour pictorial illustration of the first double-page illus with half-page insert,the following 15 double-pages each with a half-page insert with a reversible image,the last double-page without a half-page illustration insert and the reverse of that last page of that last double-page with a colour picture illustration as the last page,and at the rear,2pp blanks. Visually the exterior appearance is exceptional,and even internally,the book is also in an exceptional condition/state of preservation and presentation for a book of its age and nature, i.e. half-page flaps or a child's book. It is only the minor fault described that prevents a slightly higher overall grading.Despite that, it really is an exceptional,exemplary example for its cleanliness and brightness and lack of detracting faults. Goodall provides a rich historical panorama of the English farm,beginning with the swineherds and wattle huts of the Middle Ages and ending with the modern mechanized farm and a farmhouse bed-and-breakfast. Along the way are entrancing views of many aspects of farm life: the architecture, work and seasonal celebrations as they have evolved over the centuries. Goodall once again shows his remarkable flair for rendering the spirit of a place and era in a single spread. His watercolors capture both particular details and larger impressions, and finely convey a sense of time's inexorable passage. In addition, he makes ingenious use of half-page flaps to portray two faces of a single scene: a harvest dinner becomes a rousing barn dance; haymaking gives way to a midday break in the fields; a milling group of hounds is next shown running with the hunt. As with Goodall's previous works, readers will come away from this book feeling amply enlightened and rewarded. The world depicted in this book should be instantly recognised as a true picture by many grandparents and all great-grandparents,and it will be just as popular with parents as with children.
An uncommon title from the series.
John Strickland Goodall,born Heacham, Norfolk (UK) after leaving Harrow School, worked in the studios of Sir Arthur Cope RA. and E.Watson Nicol under whom he 'was taught with loving care to be a mid-Victorian art student'.He also studied under Harold Speed and at the Royal Academy Schools (c1930).He concentrated on line drawing in the 1930's,and began to paint in watercolour while stationed in India at the end of WW2.Since then,his extensive travels (e.g. twice round the world on a cargo boat) have provided him with many landscape subjects; he also paints conversation pieces and late 19th-century pastiches in watercolour and gouache.As an illustrator,he works in black and white (sometimes in silhouette),and full colour,turning his 'Victorian' early training to good account in evocative period tableau.In his wordless picture books he evolved an effective method of telling stories by means of half pages placed between each double-page spread.Apart from his childrens' books he is probably better known for the illustrations he provides for the Miss Read 'Thrush Green' novels.
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