Oh, to have a little house!
To own the hearth and stool and all! The heaped-up sods upon the fire,
The pile of turf against the wall!
YEARS ago, as we sat in the classroom listening to Sister reciting these lines, did any of us doubt that "An Old Woman of the Roads" really was "the Queen of England's favourite poem"? Or that Her Majesty sat in her grand palace, day after day, eating her heart out for an alternative lifestyle?
A different age, entirely.
And that age is beautifully captured in A Chlld's Book of Irish Rhymes, complied by Alice Taylor, with illustrations by Nicola Emoe (Gill & Macmillan, £6.99), a superbly produced picture book chosen by Alice Taylor from the verses she grew up with, either taken from her schoolbook or from memories of her father reciting to her when she was a child.
Easily learned and rattled off in class, these sounds rather than sense - have haunted many ears. The collection of twenty-six old childhood favourites, including "Mr Nobody", "The Little Donkey" and "Lost Time", has been produced for children of today.
In a time when our children are being bombarded with screen violence, Alice Taylor attempts to lead them back into a friendlier world. She is aided by the wonderfully accessible pictures of people and animals adorning every page. Artist Nicola Emoe, a first-time book illustrator, depicts a vibrant, personalised world. The strong, primitive colours she uses, along with a richness of detail, are stimulating and absorbing for a young reader's imagination. Laughing sunflowers, butterflies, wild lilies, harebells, snails, apple-cheeked men and women, street singers, leprechauns, fairies and cats decorate the pages in profusion.
This is a book to read and rhyme away the long evenings, the perfect gift for a young child. Alice Taylor's fields have none of "the stony grey soil" that can embitter the memory.
Hardbacked, in full colour, with large format and big print, this book is wonderful value.