THE WONDERFUL LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF TOM THUMB. Two Volumes.

First editions, volume one is a second printing, volume two is a first printing. Illustrated card covers. Illustrated throughout with black and white line drawings by Mervyn Peake. Volume two has a miniature book affixed within it, as issued. Very good copies, the bindings firm, volume one's covers are lightly toned and it is a little nicked at the foot of the spine. Volume two has a few tiny spots to the covers and some creasing and rippling to the top corner of the text block, which is also visible on the internal margins. The contents are clean and without previous owners' stamps or inscriptions. The miniature book in volume two is present and in fine condition.

A collection of children's stories about the diminutive Tom Thumb, characterfully illustrated by Mervyn Peake. The books were intended for the use of Swedish children who were learning English, and both volumes have an English to Swedish vocabulary section at the rear. Paul Britten Austin wrote the Tom Thumb tales as a pastiche of the classic British children's stories he read as a child, and this informed his choice of illustrator; he wrote that Peake's "drawings produced the authentically English impression I was looking for – Peake is about as British as can be in his drawing style, and his imagination too is utterly sunk in what might be called the 'ghosty' aspect of Britishness".