Manuscript notebook containing a childrens story

Item author: Jane Johnson
Item date: 1744
Grant Value: 2,500
Item cost: 21,562
Item date acquired: 1995
Item institution: Bodleian Library
Town/City: Oxford
County: Oxfordshire

The earliest written example yet known of an English fairy story for children. Jane Johnson was a clergymans wife who wrote and devised a whole nursery library for her children, much of which is now in the Lilly Library, Indiana. This story, covering 25 pages in the notebook, has a fascinating blend of fairy and biblical elements, mixing morals and manners with sheer entertainment and is told with great narrative drive and panache