When I was little we lived for two years in the UK, and amongst the books of my childhood are many very English books. Ernest Owl Starts a School and Postman Joe are two such books and are part of the Blackberry Farm series by Jane Pilgrim, first published in the early 1950s. They are amazingly timeless stories, and the pen and watercolour illustrations by F. Stocks May are beautifully vibrant. The illustration style is very realistic, and detailed. This accuracy makes the lovely additions of clothes on Mrs Nibble the rabbit, and her children, very charming. (Curiously, the rabbits, squirrels and mice are the only animals who wear clothes, although Ernest the Owl sports spectacles and Postman Joe a satchel.)

The books tell stories of life on the farm which is owned by Mr and Mrs Smiles and their children, Joy and Bob. But the main stars of the show are the animals, which include typical northern hemisphere robins and squirrels as well as the all the usual farm crew.

In a sign of the books’ era, Postman Joe tells the story of the arrival of a new animal to the farm: the Large Red Animal – an animal which breathes out smoke as it crawls along the lane. The illustration shows that this animal is in fact what we know is a tractor. Through the illustration of the family standing proudly around the Large Red Animal, and from the other animals’ reactions, you can immediately relate to the novelty of such a vehicle.

Of course there are plenty of baby animals among the residents of the farm, which is why Ernest Owl decides to start a school. I think Ernest was a very progressive teacher for the 1950s, because he structured his lessons for individual learning needs, and even designed tasks to suit personal motivations of his students: Mary Hen was taught to count marbles so that she could tell how many eggs her mother had laid! And meanwhile the bunnies learnt to write the letters of their names.

I love the way the narrative in these books includes lovely asides. When we are first introduced to Mrs Nibble’s three little bunnies, we are told they had been ‘in bed with the measles, but they would soon be better.’ Jane Pilgrim includes some gorgeous details which make the scenes believable, such as the pot-plants which are used for stools in Ernest’s school.

A few years ago, a collection of the Blackberry Farm stories were re-released in a compendium, The Complete Tales of Blackberry Farm, which is available from Amazon. This format doesn’t seem nearly as nice to hold in your hand – especially a small hand – as the individual volumes, but happily ensures a new generation of children will know and love these characters.