First edition, first printing. 112pp with coloured and black and white illustrations throughout. Inscribed by Mary Norton on the front free endpaper, 'For Mary Turner with Mary Norton's love, Christmas 1946. In illustrated cloth covers (covers are heavily worn, faded, rubbed all over, stained, with a crease in cloth across leading corner, slightly bowed, rounded corners). Crayon marks on front free endpaper and on half title, which have stained through a little to frontispiece and a couple of subsequent pages. Rear endpapers grubby with a couple of small crayon marks, else internally generally clean and bright with a few minor signs of fingering. Mary Norton wrote 'The Magic Bedknob' and 'Bonfires and Broomsticks' before The Borrowers books appeared. These two stories were partially re-written by Norton, especially the latter, to make one complete story which was published as a single volume under the new title 'Bedknob and Broomstick' in 1957.
Kiddell-Monroe, Joan
Signed Books, Vintage Books, vintage children's books