BERRYMAN Nursery Rhymes of Gloucestershire. LITTLETON, Noreen (Illus.)

P: Nursery Rhymes of Gloucestershire. Signed by author Signed by Noreen Littleton, illustrator.

Folio with white illustrated DJ over white boards. Calligraphy and illustrations both full page and in text to accompany each rhyme by Noreen Littleton. Size: 41 cm by 29.5 cm.

Minor wear to corners, edges and spine. Tightly bound with clean intact endpapers and strong hinges. Illustrator signature to title page. Edition number to upper right corner of title page. Light wear, creasing and chipping to upper and lower edges. Neat repair to rear fold over edge. Minor small neat tape repairs to reverse side of some corners. Berryman, a regular officer in the Indian Army. Leaving his wife and young family at home in England was understandably a wrench, so he penned the nostalgia tinged rhymes for his son. The idea of doing so was suggested to him by his wife who was familiar with a book of children's verses by Eleanor Farjeon called The Nursery Rhymes of London Town. A collection of Berryman's rhymes came to the attention of Dr Lee-Williams, the organist of Gloucester Cathedral. He found them charming and so set the words to music and published a private edition, which was circulated to schools in the city in the 1930s. Wider recognition was achieved when four of Berryman's verses were set to music by Eileen O'Malley and published by Boosey & Hawkes. In the late 1960s, The Nursery Rhymes of Gloucestershire was republished.

Reaching a new generation of local children it enjoyed a second successful outing. Consequently another edition was published, again with success, introducing the verses that were then around 100 years old to a new audience.

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