The Fairy Doll

Fairy Doll has always been at the top of the Christmas tree, brilliant in her white beaded dress and little silver shoes (which Elizabeth is sure were sewn by fairy mice).

Elizabeth is the smallest in the family. She is always getting into trouble and her brothers and sisters are forever leaving her out and ordering her around. She’s convinced she’s useless. Then Great-Grandma gives Fairy Doll to Elizabeth – and it isn`t even Christmas! From then on Elizabeth keeps hearing a little ’Ting!’ which seems to tell her what to do. Suddenly everything starts going right instead of wrong. Could Fairy Doll be magical?

Rumer Godden was one of the UK’s most distinguished authors. She wrote many well-known and much-loved books for both adults and children, including The Story of Holly and Ivy and The Dolls’ House . Her children’s novel The Diddakoi won the Whitbread Children’s Book Award in 1972.

She was awarded the OBE in 1993 and died in 1998, aged ninety.

Gary Blythe is a successful illustrator best-known for The Whale Song , which won the prestigious Kate Greenaway Award, and I Believe in Unicorns by Michael Morpurgo. He lives in Merseyside.