Beautifully reproduced with a handsome Edward Ardizzone cover and a neat little book mark, this is a welcome reissue of the true source of the first Nanny McPhee film. Mr and Mrs Brown have a handful of unruly children – we’re talking old fashioned naughtiness here – whose pranks and scrapes lead to an endless succession of staff resignations until the redoubtable Nurse Matilda appears on the scene. Formidably ugly, she is also gifted with children helped now and then by a touch of magic. Driven by good humour and rarely preachy, Nurse Matilda nonetheless extols the value of adult control over children – at least some of the time.
Once upon a time there was a huge family of children; and they were terribly, terribly naughty ... So begins Nurse Matilda, the first of three books about the no-nonsense nanny who uses magic to rein in the mischievous children in her charge - and changes their lives forever. This covetable, highly collectable new hardback edition of a timeless classic is packed with episode after episode of mischief, mayhem and hilarity, all accompanied by Edward Ardizzone's beautiful original illustrations.
The inspiration for the much-loved film Nanny McPhee, starring Emma Thompson and Colin Firth, Nurse Matilda overflows with naughtiness, wit and timeless humour - the perfect gift for mischief-makers both young and old!
Full of such inventive naughtiness - it may be better to keep these away from your children - Emma Thompson
Just as some musicians are endowed with perfect pitch, Ardizzone had a perfect sense of tone - Shirley Hughes
Author
About Christianna Brand
Christianna Brand was born in 1907 in Malaya and spent her early years in India. She had a number of different occupations, including model, dancer, shop assistant and governess.
Her first novel, Death in High Heels, was published in 1941. A year later her best-loved series character, Inspector Cockrill of the Kent County Police, made his debut in Heads You Lose. He would feature in a total of seven of her detective novels. Green for Danger is Brand’s most famous novel and considered by many to be her masterpiece. H.R.F. Keating described the novel as ‘the last golden crown of the Golden Age detective story’. The novel was adapted for the big screen in 1946 starring Alastair Sim as the Inspector.
Christianna Brand’s most appealing characteristic as a writer was her ability to blend complex and intriguing plots with a lively sense of humour conveyed both through character and dialogue. Brand herself admitted: ‘I write for no reason more pretentious than simply to entertain.’
Christianna Brand was married to her husband Roland for nearly fifty years. She died in 1988.