The Water Babies

I collect dusty old illustrated books. And I love this 1929 version of Charles Kingsley’s ‘The Water Babies’ which I have just re-discovered.

The story (published in 1863) was a childhood favourite, but it is the artwork of Jessie Wilcox-Smith that I am obsessed with. Her gentle watercolour paintings with their muted, limpid tones bring the underwater dream-scape to life so vividly. Dipping back into this still has the power to transport back to another world of the river bed…