The Bad Child’s Book of Beasts
Verses by H. Belloc.
Pictures by Basil Temple Lockwood.
Published by Duckworth Ltd, London, in 1935.
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: VG. Some light wear to spine and yellowing to pages, but otherwise a clean copy with no major marks or inscriptions.
The Bad Child's Book of Beasts is an 1896 children’s book written by Hilaire Belloc. Illustrated by Basil Temple Blackwood, the superficially naive verses give tongue-in-cheek advice to children. In the book, the animals tend to be sage-like, and the humans dull and self-satisfied. Within the first three months of its publication, The Bad Child's Book of Beasts sold 4,000 copies.
You won’t forget Basil Temple Blackwood's illustrations in this beautiful 1935 edition in a hurry - the cheerful dromedary, the cheeky marmozet, and "the learned fish who has not sufficient brains to go into the water when it rains" - all rendered in a witty, characterful pen-and-ink style which has been described as “German expressionism”.