Cautionary tales

First published in 1907 and in print ever since, Hilaire Belloc’s Cautionary Tales for Children is a deliciously witty parody of the terribly serious moral tales for children, which were popular in Victorian times.

Terrifying and funny at the same time, and with a true sense of the absurd, Belloc brings us the renowned ‘Jim, Who ran away from his nurse, and was eaten by a Lion’ and unfortunate ‘Rebecca, who slammed Doors for Fun and Perished Miserably’.

As well as these stories and many more, this edition includes a selection of mischievous poems from The Bad Child’s Book of Beasts and More Beasts for Worse Children. This volume includes the original illustrations by Basil Temple Blackwood, known as B.T.B.

Read a sample here