Product Description

This is a classic of children's literature, the charm and melancholy humour of de la Mare's poems is captured here by Edward Ardizzone's illustrations.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #329449 in Books
• Published on: 2001-04-09
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 108 pages

Review
"'Peacock Pie is surely one of the greatest children's books of the century.' The Times"

Customer Reviews

My Proper Introduction to de la Mare
I was captivated by a poem of de la Mare in the "Poem of the Day Two" Anthology. When I found this volume I picked it up...and it did not disappoint. "Peacock Pie" is "A Book of Rhyme" for children and happens to be de la Mare's most enduring collection - hence the only of his collections to be reissued en bloc by Faber & Faber. Unlike his near contemporary A.A. Milne, de la Mare did not write the sort of poetry that most children will identify with I don't think. But his poetry any child - and grown-up who has not forsaken his innate Romantic psyche - will be able to empathize with. Isn't "The Bookworm" de la Mare's version of "The Table Turned", that poem which was a cornerstone of Romanticism?

This edition features attractive and (even more so) highly evocative illustrations by Ardizzone. He is not my preferred illustrator but for Faber to choose to reiisue this collection illustrated in this age is merit and achievement in itself. My only real reservation with this edition is that it does away with, as I later discovered, the categorisation of the poems. The actual sequence I think has been left intact, but the division I finds illuminates it further. So 1 star knocked off for that.