The Apprentices
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Cover Story
Through star filled skies on Christmas Eve Kay Harker, in a sleigh pulled by eight unicorns and driven by Herne the Hunter, returns in triumph to Tatchester. The illustration on the cover of this issue of BfK is by Faith Jaques and is taken from The Box of Delights, a newly illustrated edition of John Masefield's classic children's book, abridged by Patricia Crampton and published by Heinemann, 0 434 95052 1, £7.95. A paperback edition (without colour plates) is available from Fontana Lion (0 00 572415 9, £1.50). We are grateful to Heinemann and Fontana for help in using this illustration.
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Space here cannot be justice to the seemingly daunting 315 pages of this collection of 12 previously published stories, one for each month of the year. Pupils will need to be encouraged to dip into these yarns of apprentice pawnbrokers, midwives, mirror makers, horse painters and their ilk, whose lives are revealed and mingled in striking variety against a backdrop of eighteenth century London. It is to be hoped that one encounter will lead to more and that sensitive types will catch not only the tales themselves but also the added dimensions of such tales as the first, where Possul must embody a deeper significance than just a lamplighter; or of Moss and Blister where the two ladies' hopes and ambitions at Christmastide embrace many of our own unfulfilled wishes at that season.