Beryl Irving · 1926–2026 · a century of The Dawnchild
The Dawnchild
Written and illustrated by Beryl Irving
Mig is seven, lonely, and longing for something beyond her unhappy home, until a strange bird taps at her window and the Dawnchild leads her towards Dawnland, with cruel Cousin Belinda and the Umpis in pursuit. Beryl Irving wrote it and drew it, and Faber and Gwyer published it in London in 1926 with eight colour plates and her line drawings set through the text. It has been hard to find for a long time: first editions are scarce, and one reader remembers her father searching for years before he found a copy. This edition sets the text in new type and includes all eight plates and the drawings, on cream paper. Read alone from about nine; read aloud from six.
- Paperback279 pages, eight colour plates, 156 × 234 mm£18.00
- Hardback279 pages, cased; all eight plates printed in black and white. Choose the paperback for colour. A colour hardback is in preparation and is not for sale£44.00
- EbookEPUB, the plates inline, read on any device£11.99
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The eight original colour plates
Shown here in colour, as reproduced in the paperback and ebook. The current hardback (£44.00) reproduces these plates in black and white.
Look inside
Spreads from the colour paperback print file, shown at the proportions they print. The hardback prints the plates in black and white. Tap or click a spread to see it large.
Sixteen chapters
- Mig Meets the Dawnchild
- Noseyface Makes His Presence Felt
- A Day Trip to Totterslip-on-Sea
- The Annual Meeting Place
- The Journey to Dawnland
- The Dwarf Village and Deserted Planet
- Back at Home the Umpi King Returns
- The World of Enchantment
- The Journey to the Worum
- The Race by River to the Midnight Sea
- They Arrive at the Worum
- Mig Meets the Witch of Worum
- Mig Tours the Witch of Worum's Castle
- Mig Meets the Prince
- Dawnland
- Belinda's Trial and the Wedding
Who it is for
A child of nine or ten who likes a story with real danger in it. Mig is seven and alone, and the Umpis are not friendly.
Anyone who read it once and has been looking for it since. Copies of the 1926 edition are hard to find and this one has all the pictures.
Collectors of illustration who want a reading copy of Beryl Irving's plates beside the original, or instead of one.
Read aloud from about six; the chapters are short and the drawings give small listeners something to look at.
Read the opening
Chapter One: Mig Meets the Dawnchild
On the window-sill something stirred.
Mig turned over in bed, but fell asleep again.
Something tapped at the window and called her name.
Mig started up at this and looked around.
Upon the yellow blinds she saw the shadows of the ivy-leaves and of what appeared to be an extraordinary bird seated on the sill.
The rest of the chapter, and the fifteen that follow, are in the book.
A note on the book
The Dawnchild was published in London by Faber and Gwyer in 1926, "with pictures by the author". Faber and Gwyer was the young firm that became Faber and Faber three years later.
Beryl Irene Irving (1896–1965) was not yet thirty, and known as a magazine illustrator. Her drawings appeared in The Nursery World, Farmers Weekly, the East Anglian Times and The Radio Times. For this book she did everything: the story, the eight colour plates and the line drawings that run through the text. Her figures owe something to Jessie M. King in their long lines and flying hair, but the menace is her own: the Umpis, the Witch of Worum, the chariot going over the crag. The children's writer Vivian French, remembering it from her own childhood, called it "a truly amazing fantasy story"; the copy she read had been her mother's.
The book did not stay in print, and the first edition is now scarce. One reader recalls her father searching for years before he found a copy in 1990. The book's first return was a free digital edition in 2007, made from a typescript that Annette Gregg, whose mother had won the book as a prize and passed it to her, copy-typed from her own copy between 2002 and 2004; this edition is in her debt. This edition sets the text afresh and reproduces the plates and drawings from the original printing. Spelling and punctuation are as published; printer's errors have been silently corrected.
D. B.
The edition
| First edition | Faber and Gwyer, London, 1926 |
|---|---|
| Extent | 279 pages |
| Illustrations | Eight colour plates and black-and-white drawings by the author |
| Trim | 156 × 234 mm |
| Paper | Cream, uncoated |
| Paperback ISBN | 979-8-9919724-4-4 |
| Hardback ISBN | 979-8-9822927-0-4 |
| Ebook | EPUB, 194 pages |
| Publisher | Dawnchild Books |
"A truly amazing fantasy story."
Bookseller or librarian? The trade page has the advance information sheet, terms and high-resolution covers.
Do you remember this book?
Tell us who gave it to you, when, and what it was like. We read every memory, answer the ones that ask a question, and with your leave quote the best of them on this page under a first name.
Next from Dawnchild
The Family Week-End Book, Beryl Irving, 1941. Hardback, forthcoming. After it, Elfin Song, Florence Harrison, 1912.