Prisoner 4100

Prisoner 4100, originally uploaded by The National Archives UK.

George Davey was sentenced to one month's hard labour in Wandsworth Prison in 1872 for stealing two rabbits. He was ten years old.

The National Archives have a flickr account - there are some wonderful images to browse through. You can click on the links to go to their page.

More tales from behind the bike sheds

The Man Who Didn't Wash His Dishes

The Man Who Didn't Wash His Dishes, by Phyllis Krasilovsky, illustrated by Barbara Cooney. Published 1962.

Museum of Childhood

Museum of Childhood

Cambridge Heath Road, Bethnal Green, London E2.

A is for bicycle

Museum of Childhood, Bethnal Green

Amber Necklace

Me, my Mum and my Granny, all wearing hand-made clothes, c.1964. My dress is the same fabric as my Mum's blouse. I have managed to persuade my Granny to let me wear her amber necklace !


Here is the lead-up to getting the necklace !! The garden was full of hydrangeas. I love the intense colour of these photos.

Childhood diary

November 22nd 1963. President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas Texas. LH Oswald charged with his murder was shot today in Dallas. Page from my Mum's diary.

What were you doing when President Kennedy was shot ? For my parents generation this was a momentous event. A lot of people from that time remember where they were and what they were doing. My Mum remembers she was at home in the evening, sewing clothes for me ( I was one year old) and heard the news on the radio. The page recording this day comes from the scrap book she made in my early years. My mum was a sculptor in the 60s, until I almost choked on a wood chip, while she was carving in the kitchen. She painted, sewed clothes and dolls for me and kept this beautiful scrap book of cuttings, drawings and photographs. She has always supported my artistic life and been a huge influence on it.

John Burningham

ABC by John Burningham 1964, published by Jonathan Cape
endpaper for ABC by John Burningham

This was one of my first books that I remember (and still own). An alphabet by John Burningham. They are fantastic illustrations - typography and pictures - how I learnt to recognise letters and understand language - still an influence today. He also wrote several other childhood favourites, Borka 1963, Trubloff 1964, Humbert 1965 and Cannonball Simp 1966.