ILLUSTRATED BY GWEN RAVERAT
240p PERSEPHONE BOOKS ISBN 1903155266
AFTERWORDS BY ANNE HARVEY & FRANCES SPALDING

This 1872 novel by a mid-Victorian poet and novelist is about a girl named Clarice, living with her widowed father and her governess 'in a charming home at a convenient (railway) distance from the city.' One day she finds a girl of her own age hiding in the shrubbery. She is Olga and 'there is no question that she is the liveliest child character in English fiction' said the Observer in 1936.

The Runaway was a lifelong favourite of the artist Gwen Raverat and it was at her suggestion that it was reissued with sixty of her wood-engravings, which we reproduce. Because of the delightful quality of the story and the beautiful illustrations this is a book that can be enjoyed by all ages.

For the endpapers we used a 1936 woodblock-printed curtain fabric designed and hand-printed on linen by Margaret Calkin James for the schoolroom at 'Hornbeams'.