The Little Bookroom

I have shamelessly stolen this beautiful illustration from the blog "it made my heart beat" who in turn borrowed it from "a gem a day" and on and on it goes... The drawing is by Edward Ardizzone from The Little Bookroom by Eleanor Farjeon. First published in 1955, her collection represents the best of her work over the previous 30 years.

In the preface Farjeon says:
"Seven maids with seven brooms, sweeping for half-a-hundred years, have never managed to clear my mind of its dust of vanished temples and flowers and kings, the curls of ladies, the sighing of poets, the laughter of lads and girls"

Her collection inspired Melbourne namesake The Little Bookroom which has been around for  51 years. The children's book specialists now have two stores in the city, one  in Carlton North and one in Degraves Street.