The Complete Brambly Hedge: The gorgeously illustrated children’s classics delighting kids and parents! Hardcover – Special Edition, 3 Sept. 2020

A childhood favourite with the most gorgeous illustrations, the perfect book.

Seeing a set of china plate with charming pictures from the Jill Barklem books set me to remembering Brambly Hedge, from the 1980's. We had the four separate seasonal books in a hard case then, but now they are a little tired and faded.I resolved to introduce my grandchildren to these delightful tales. Finding them here in such a generous format, yet so reasonably priced, was a happy surprise. The whole set are here: Spring Story, Summer Story, Autumn Story, Winter Story, The Secret Staircase, The High Hills, Sea Story and Poppy's Babies. Wow. All in one volume!So this Harper Collins Children's Books, hardback, complete, collection is quite breathtaking. The glossy dust jacket protects the illustrated board covers. The end papers are a cerulean, robin's egg blue. The quality of the art reproduction is pin sharp, the paintings are so minutely detailed; deserving and receiving the brightest, cleanest of print. For the adult reading to the child, pleasure will repay the effort and keep you going on much longer than perhaps you intended. This was always the joy of the Beatrix Potter books of course.The language used in the stories is charming and accessible, thoughtful and kind. I am trying to avoid the use of the word 'sweet', but here it does truly suit. Nature notes are gently imparted. I think the book will inspire children to look more closely at the garden, park and countryside; when they are out walking they can seek out Brambly Hedges for themselves, then dream up their own little tales and draw their own little mouse worlds.The two page Introduction to the 248 glossy pages was fascinating. Wonderful to learn more about the author/illustrator and how she set about bringing the Hedge to life for us. She sums up the experience when she says, "Creating the books is tremendous fun, but very hard work at the same time. This because I like to get everything right. Each flower must have the correct number of petals and be growing in the right place, at the right time. Everything the mice make or do must be possible for them, living where they do. After all, Brambly Hedge is real, and I am simply here to record it".A lovely book.

A delightful find! This was a book much loved by my children many years ago. I was thrilled to find an extended version of the Brambly Hedge stories. I bought two, one for two small great nieces and one for me! The original continues to be a favourite of my grown up daughter who now reads it to her son. The illustrations are every child’s dream as there are so many secret places to find and, even as an adult, I can imagine exploring the many rooms in the pictures. The stories are sweet and there is enough depth to satisfy young children.

We love this book it’s based on little mice in the country and brings them to life we love the cute stories

Beautiful colour plate well written a lovely gift for my soon to be e great grand son

Such a gorgeous book! Really lovely illustrations.

Bought for two of our grandchildren at Christmas, arrived Christmas eve, only because we ordered at the last minuite. Absolutely lovely.

Brambly Hedge is a beautiful series, I love them. This complete collection is great to have and is printed on high-quality paper. My one slight disappointment and why I give this product 4/5 stars is because all of the pictures inside the book are printed with a "warm" hue (perhaps caused by the paper, which is not shiny white, but more creamy) - that is, all the illustrations tend towards red and brown and as a result lack the crisp feeling of clean, well-balanced colour prints. I can compare this as I have an old edition of two of the stories, where the pictures do not suffer from this slight mishap.