Best known for Gobbolino and The Adventures of The Little Wooden Horse, Ursula Moray Williams also wrote this funny, inventive story of fantasy, suspense and magic, now reissued as A Puffin Book. Orphan Samantha sets off in high spirits to live with her aunt, Lady Clandorris. Unfortunately Lady Clandorris is hostile towards humankind in general, and to children in particular. Their relationship deteriorates with the unexpected arrival of a strange wide-eyed creature with a long furry tale, feathered wings and two webbed feet. Samantha discovers it is a bogwoppit, and that it’s come through the drains from the outside pond. Samantha of course wants to care for it but Lady Clandorris has other plans for the little thing, and for her niece, too. This lovely little book thoroughly deserves its status as a modern classic.~ Andrea Reece
When Aunt Lily marries the lodger and goes to America, orphaned Samantha is packed off to her Aunt Daisy, who lives in a grand house at the Park. Snooty Lady Daisy Clandorris has no time for children. Lucky for Samantha, then, to discover the small, furry creature living in the cellar; a bogwoppit - believed extinct - up till now...
Ursula Moray Williams wrote and illustrated over 70 children's books in her lifetime. Born in 1911, she was one of identical twins, both of whom started to write and illustrate their own books at a young age. After spending time in France, Ursula's first book Jean Pierre was published when she was just twenty. Set in the Haute-Savoie region which she knew so well, it followed the adventures of a small boy and his pet goat. Moray Williams wrote her most famous story, The Adventures of the Little Wooden Horse, in 1938, in which a little toy horse is separated from his toymaker ‘uncle' and must endure many dangerous adventures before finally finding a happy ending. A few years later in, 1942, she went on to write Gobbolino, the Witch's Cat, which soon became a firm favourite with children. Her books have been illustrated by Edward Ardizzone and Shirley Hughes, among others.
