The House Without Windows - Hardcover

Follett, Barbara Newhall

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 024138981X ISBN 13: 9780241389812

Publisher: Hamish Hamilton, 2019

Synopsis

'An enchanting book. These pages simply quiver with the beauty, happiness and vigour of forests, seas and mountains . . . I can safely promise joy to any reader of it. Perfection' Eleanor Farjeon, Winner of the Carnegie Medal and The Hans Christian Andersen Award

Discover this extraordinary lost classic of nature writing - a fable about wildness and the desire to escape - beautifully illustrated by beloved artist and The Lost Words creator Jackie Morris

'Miraculous - a fearless odyssey into a dreamtime of wildness and enchantment. Gloriously illuminated by Jackie Morris's moving art, this is a work of strange power for our own bewildered times' Nick Drake

Little Eepersip doesn't want to live in a house with doors and windows and a roof, so she runs away to live in the wild - first in the Meadow, then by the Sea, and finally in the Mountain. Her heartbroken parents follow her at first, bringing her back home to 'safety' and locking her up in the stifling square of the house. But she slips away once more, following her wild heart out of the door and far away...

Barbara Newhall Follett was just thirteen years old when she published The House Without Windows in 1927. The book went on to become a million-copy bestseller. Years later, as an adult herself, Barbara followed in the footsteps of her radical heroine - dissatisfied with the limitations of life as a respectable married woman, she walked out of her house one day and simply disappeared.

Penguin are delighted to republish Barbara Newhall Follett's extraordinary feminist fable for the next generation of nature lovers and escapees to discover and cherish. Newly introduced by Jackie Morris, and filled with her beautifully inked artwork, The House Without Windows is an irresistible paean to the natural world and its transcendent effect on the human heart.

'A classic, as miraculous and awe-inspiring as the nine-year-old author. Jackie Morris portrays the artistic elegance of the eastern ink with the wisdom of the West' Xinran, author of The Good Women of China

Praise for The Lost Words

'Breathtaking . . . Jackie Morris has created something that you could spend all day looking at' New Statesman

'Luminous' Sunday Times

'Sumptuous . . . A book combining meticulous wordcraft with exquisite illustrations deftly restores language describing the natural world to the children's lexicon...The Lost Words is a beautiful book and an important one' Observer

About this title

About the Authors

Barbara Newhall Follett was an American child prodigy novelist. Born in 1914, she published her first novel, The House Without Windows, aged twelve. One year later she published another, The Voyage of the Norman D., based on her own experiences sailing round Nova Scotia without her parents at thirteen years old. Barbara Newhall Follett disappeared shortly before Christmas 1939, leaving her home with $30 in her pocket, and was never seen again. The mystery of her disappearance has never been solved.

Jackie Morris grew up in the Vale of Evesham, dreaming of becoming an artist and living by the sea. She studied at Hereford College of Arts and at Bath Academy, and went on to illustrate for the New Statesman, Independent and Guardian among many other publications. As a children's author and artist, she has created over forty books, including beloved classics such as Song of the Golden Hare, Tell Me A Dragon, East of the Sun, West of the Moon and The Wild Swans. She collaborated with Ted Hughes, and her books have sold more than a million copies worldwide. Jackie now lives in a cottage on the cliffs of Pembrokeshire, which she shares with a small pride of cats and various other gentle creatures.

Edition details

• Publisher: Hamish Hamilton
• Publication date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 024138981X
• ISBN 13: 9780241389812
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Morris Jackie
• Number of pages: 240