A beloved possession, this book was given to me by my mother for Christmas 1969, when I was six. You can just see below her dedication in the illustration of the inside front cover.Â
Like her, I loved the poem presented Robert Browning’s superb translation from the German. I re-read it many times, organically learning parts by heart and entranced by the illustrations, creations of the twin-sister-duo Janet and Anne Grahame Johnstone.Â
As we enter a new year, and I soon embark on a new decade, I’ve decided to learn the whole poem by heart, and once I do, I’ll do a podcast.Â
See here for this and other new year ‘readolutions’, and here for an essay on the joys of memorizing poetry, here in an audio version.
Source: The Pied Piper of Hamelin, trans. by Robert Browning, illus. by Janet and Anne Grahame Johnstone (London: Dean & Sons, 1969)
I also had this book as a small child and learnt the whole poem by heart at the age of 6. Sadly my copy is long lost but seeing these photos by chance has triggered so many happy memories.
Jane, thank you for sharing this, lovely to know there were other children out there equally captivated by the poem. And well done for having learned it all at such a young age – I picked up stretches but now need to knit them into a single memorization. Very glad that seeing the wonderful illustrations triggered happy memories.