Elsie Piddock Skips in her Sleep
Eleanor Farjeon
Second hand
The High Skip, the Slow Skip, the Long Skip, the Skip against Trouble, little Elsie Piddock can skip them all. She can even out skip the fairies on Mount Caburn. Years later her skipping skills help to thwart an unpleasant landowner threatening to deny access to the hallowed skipping ground.
First published in 1937, this is a quietly radical story where skipping games, fairies, full moons and day to day village life culminate in a multi generational protest to protect access to the much loved hill top Mount Caburn.
The Eleanor Farjeon Estate commissioned Charlotte Voake to illustrate the story in 2015, republishing the tale with her intricate watercolours.
Eleanor Farjeon was a poet and writer, publishing over 80 works for children and adults throughout her lifetime. Educated at home, she spent much of her time in the attic, surrounded by books. She describes her family and her childhood in the autobiographical A Nursery in the Nineties (1935). She and her elder brother Harry were especially close. Beginning when Farjeon was five, they began a sustained imaginative game in which they became various characters from theatrical plays and literature. This game, called T.A.R. after the initials of two of the original characters, lasted into their mid-twenties. Farjeon credited this game with giving her "the flow of ease which makes writing a delight".[3] After World War I she earned a living as a poet, journalist and broadcaster. Her most widely published work is the hymn "Morning has Broken", written in 1931 to an old Gaelic tune associated with the Scottish village Bunessan. In the 1950’s Farjeon recieved three major literary awards, the Carnegie Medal for British children’s books, the inaugural Hans Christian Anderson award and the inaugural Regina Medal. After her death in 1965 the Children’s Book Circle established the annual Eleanor Farjeon Award in her honour.
Charlotte Voake has written over 13 books for children as well as illustrated many others. Having grown up in Wales she studied history at university in London before illustrating her first book. She received the 1997 Nestlé Smarties Book Prize for Jot stocked title Ginger, a book about a cat's dislike towards a new addition to the family.