The House Without Windows

Description

A lost classic of children's nature writing - introduced and illustrated by beloved creator of The Lost Words, Jackie Morris This is the irresistible and entirely unique story of one little girl's desire to escape into the wilderness. Little Eepersip doesn't want to live in a house with doors and windows and a roof, so she runs away to live in the wild - first in the Meadow, then by the Sea, and finally in the Mountain. Her heartbroken parents follow her, bringing her back home to 'safety' and locking her up in the stifling square of the house. But she slips away once more, following her heart into the richness of untrammelled nature and disappearing forever. First published in 1927 and written by a child of just twelve years old, The House Without Windows is an extraordinary paean to the transcendent beauty of the natural world, and the human capacity to connect with it.

Barbara Newhall Follett (Author) Barbara Newhall Follett was an American child prodigy novelist. Born in 1914, she published her first novel, The House Without Windows, aged twelve. One year later she published another, The Voyage of the Norman D., based on her own experiences sailing round Nova Scotia without her parents at thirteen years old. Barbara Newhall Follett disappeared shortly before Christmas 1939, leaving her home with $30 in her pocket, and was never seen again. The mystery of her disappearance has never been solved. Jackie Morris (Illustrator, Introducer) Jackie Morris is the bestselling and award-winning co-creator of The Lost Words and The Lost Spells, two books which have captured the hearts of hundreds of thousands of readers of all ages. She also illustrated and introduced a new edition of Barbara Newhall Follett's lost classic of wild literature, The House Without Windows. As an author, Jackie Morris has produced over forty beloved children's books; as an artist she has also worked with the New Statesman, Independent and Guardian, among others. She won the Kate Greenaway Medal and the British Book Awards Children's Book of the Year for The Lost Words in 2018. Jackie lives in a cottage on the cliffs of Pembrokeshire, where she is now working on her forthcoming third book with long-time collaborator, Robert Macfarlane- The Book of Birds.

One of the strangest, most enchanting and mystifying stories I've read in recent years . . . It's beautiful, bonkers and brimming with the abundance and richness of nature and a life lived with no boundaries. Also Jackie's intro and illustrations provide a depth and context that only lifts the book and its story higher. -- Rob Cowen . . . Extraordinary. Deeply weird, beautiful & unsettling. -- Robert Macfarlane The House without Windows is miraculous - a fearless odyssey into a dreamtime of wildness and enchantment. Gloriously illuminated by Jackie Morris's moving art, this is a work of strange power for our own bewildered times. -- Nick Drake Astonishingly lyrical * The Spectator *