My dear Mrs Blackburn That you may see the earnest has begun I send you the beginning of Tom on inspection, but please let me have him again or I shall forget what articles of fairy furniture have been used up. I like the work very much, and where you see numbers put I mean to have notes, and quote my authorities, Drayton, Ben Jonson, Shakespeare, Geoffrey of Monmouth. In this way I think pretty bits ... continue reading

My dear Mrs Blackburn Many thanks for your photograph which I am very glad to possess, as it is pleasant to have more than a visionary notion what one is writing to.

I cannot find any authority for Tom Thumb’s father being a miller, in one of your books he is a ploughman in the other a woodman, and in Grimm a peasant, so as he seemed to be quite well to do, with a cow ... continue reading