Lots of people know that Walter de la Mare was a fantastic poet, but his weird fiction is much less well known. It shouldn't be -- he was a marvelous fantasist, and The Return is a heck of a book. Arthur Lawford, recovering from a long bout with influenza, takes a fateful walk in an old cemetery one afternoon, returning a changed man who neither his wife, nor his friends, nor himself -- recognizes. . . . (Jacketless library hardcover.)

If you know Walter De La Mare's work, you probably know him as an important literary novelist and poet in the early twentieth century. But he also tried his hand at children's fiction, and "The Three Mulla-mulgars" is pretty special. It's the sort of book you want to take home and read to your kids yourself.

But it's De La Mare. You "know" it's got to have a bit of verse, don't you?

"Long -- long is Time, though books be brief:
Adventures strange -- ay, past belief --
Await the Reader's drowsy eye;
But, wearied out, he'd lay them by.

"But, if so be he'd some day hear
All that befell these brothers dear
In Tishnar's lovely Valleys -- well,
Poor pen, thou must that story tell!

"But farewell, now, you Mulgars three!
Farewell, your faithful company!
Farewell, the heart that loved unbidden --
Nod's dark-eyed, beauteous Water-midden!"

The Return by Walter de la Mare is an occult tale of possession. It is an interesting gothic psychological thriller, nebulous and dark, in the tradition of Edgar Allan Poe. Gripping and poignant tale of psychic possession concerns Arthur Lawford, who appears to have been possessed by the spirit of a long-dead French 18th-century pirate. One of de la Mare's finest occult stories, the novel also deals with domestic trauma, unrequited love and philosophical reflection. Insidiously horrific, unrelentingly disturbing...

The Small Years was first published in June 1930 and printed three times in its first six months. In 1937 it was re-issued in a smaller pocket edition, and this went out of print during the war. This second edition, which was originally published in 1950, returned the text to its larger form. This is simply one man's account of what it meant to him to be a child - to be born and brought up at an unusual school in a remote and beautiful rurality; an account which, by all the evidence, clearly has power over its readers of inciting them to recover and live over again their own private memories of a great variety of childhoods. Mr Walter de la Mare's introduction to the first edition is retained, and the author's original map of the village is in its place once more.

Peacock Pie presents an extensive selection of de la Mare's best poetry, in thematically themes sections such as are "Up and Down," "Boys and Girls," "Three Queer Tales," "Places and People," "Beasts," "Witches and Fairies," "Earth and Air," and "Songs."

Walter de la Mare -- famous as a fantasist and as a poet -- was a lot of things. Brilliant, well spoken, and just plain cool. But you know? In the end, his own poems speak better of this collection of poetry than we ever could. And so we let him have his say --

The Truants

Ere my heart beats too coldly and faintly
To remember sad things, yet be gay, Magic hath stolen away.

The primroses scattered by April,
The stars of the wide Milky Way,
Cannot outnumber the hosts of the children
Magic hath stolen away.

The buttercup green of the meadows,
The snow of the blossoming may,
Lovelier are not than the legions of children
Magic hath stolen away.

The waves tossing surf in the moonbeam,
The albatross lone on the spray,
Alone know the tears wept in vain for the children
Magic hath stolen away.

In vain: for at hush of the evening,
When the stars twinkle into the grey,
Seems to echo the faraway calling of children
Magic hath stolen away.

The perfect gift for children aged 8+, this stunning classic collection of poetry will delight a new generation of readers of the Faber Children's Classics list. Peacock Pie contains the finest of Walter de la Mare's poems for children, accompanied by exquisite original illustrations from Edward Ardizzone. This beautiful new edition of a classic anthology is an essential part of any child's bookshelf.