Questions

Yes. The full text from an early printing, usually the first (each book’s page says which), with every plate and drawing from that printing, placed where it has them. Nothing is abridged or modernised. Spelling and punctuation are as published; printer's errors have been silently corrected.

In the paperback and the ebook of The Dawnchild, all eight plates are in colour. The hardback reproduces all eight plates and the line drawings in black and white; a hardback with the colour plates is planned, and this page will say so when it exists. Daffy Goes to Sea has her frontispiece and, in the second story, about fifteen pen drawings. The Family Week-End Book is illustrated in line throughout.

The Dawnchild reads alone from about nine and aloud from six; it has moments of real menace. Daffy Goes to Sea reads alone from about nine and aloud from seven. The Family Week-End Book is for the grown-ups of the house and everyone who lives in it, and Good Food is a cookbook for the kitchen.

Standard is the usual choice: your book leaves the printer in about seven working days and comes tracked, so in the UK it is usually with you in about two weeks. Choose Express and it leaves in about four working days by the quickest tracked service, usually with you in five or six working days in the UK. The basket shows the dates the printer gives for UK delivery before you pay, and the confirmation repeats them; if they change we write to you with the new date and the option of a refund.

Printed books are currently delivered within the United Kingdom only. Readers abroad can buy ebooks, delivered by email with no postage. For news of print delivery to your country, write to hello@dawnchild.com. UK prices and timings are on the shipping page.

No. The ebook is an EPUB without copy protection, with the plates inline. It is for your own devices, and we ask you not to pass it on. The download link is in your confirmation email.

For these editions, order from us or ask your bookshop to enquire about ordering direct at trade terms; the trade page has what they need.

Because of the plates. Eight colour plates printed properly, on cream paper, and printed to order, cost more than a mass-market reprint with no pictures. A Dawnchild paperback is priced like an illustrated book, which is what it is.

Within thirty days of delivery, for any reason. If the fault is ours, a misprint, a damaged copy or the wrong format, we pay the return postage and replace or refund, whichever you prefer. Details on the shipping and returns page.

Yes. Every book's page shows its pictures at full size, spreads from the print file, and its history note.

No. The pictures are the ones made for the original editions, and no picture on the covers, in the books or on this site is generated by software. The answers on Ask the archive are written by a language model, and say so.

Three London publishers and a printer in Malaya. The Dawnchild came from Faber and Gwyer in 1926, the young firm that became Faber and Faber three years later. Daffy Goes to Sea came from Nisbet in 1932. Seeley Service published The Family Week-End Book in 1941. Good Food was printed far from London, by Charles Grenier and Co. at Ipoh in Malaya in 1947, for the households of post-war Malaya. Each book's page gives its first edition and a note on its history.

Illustrated children's books of the 1920s and 1930s were published in the autumn for Christmas and bought by parents, grandparents, aunts and godparents as presents, and by schools as prizes; the colour plates are what justified the price, and the prize labels and inscriptions in surviving copies show who gave them to whom. A fairy book like The Dawnchild went to a child of six to ten to be read aloud and then alone. The Family Week-End Book was a household present in wartime, kept on the kitchen shelf and used. Good Food was published at Ipoh for the householders of post-war Malaya, European and Asian, who were cooking for themselves for the first time: its foreword, by the Assistant Food Controller for Perak, says that women were dispensing with paid cooks and needed to learn the food of the country.

Partly the ordinary story of the trade, and partly we do not yet know. In general, colour plates were expensive to reprint, and the paper rationing of the 1940s stopped many publishers reprinting their backlists; a book not reprinted then was seldom reprinted later. For our own books the record is thin. We have found no reprint of The Dawnchild with its plates. Daffy Goes to Sea was a seasonal book from Nisbet, and we have not yet traced a reprint. The Family Week-End Book was reprinted in 1949 and then not again. Good Food was printed at Ipoh in 1947 by a local printer for Malaya's households, its foreword hoped for a second edition, and we have found none. What is certain is that readers kept asking: letters about The Dawnchild arrived for decades from people who had it as children, which is why it is back. The notes on this site say what we have found, and will say more as we find it.

Please do. The form at the foot of the Books page takes a title and an email, and we read every one. We can only take on books that are out of print, illustrated in their original edition, free to reprint or licensable, and still good to read today.

A small independent imprint, named after the first book it published, and part of Focal Point International LLC. We print in small numbers, to order, and answer our own email. More on the About page.