Margery Williams

I have three book recommendations.

The first one is for a younger person, but it, it's also quite suitable for a mature person, and it's a book called The Velveteen Rabbit, written by Margery Williams.

It is a very beautiful, tiny story about a toy and how you become real by really loving it, and I think that in this time this might be a very good book because I think we've forgotten a lot about love.

The second book about love is a love to belong and a love to have a place in the world, and that's A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul.

She would walk back in the house, and I knew she was weeping, even as a kid.

So I'm gonna read a little passage out of, um, The Velveteen Rabbit, which is by Margery Williams Bianco.

Many of you perhaps know the story, and I hope that I'm s- I'm still visible.

It, it is an old story, I wanna say from 1922, I think.

Generally, by the time you are real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out, and you get loose in the joints and very shabby.

But these things don't matter at all, because once you are real, you can't be ugly, except to the people who don't understand." It brings tears to my eyes every time.

[laughs] It's The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams Bianco, and it's such a beautiful story.

It's a children's story, but it's, it's so powerful for anyone.

Stories from Now and Then is narrated by the amazing Nicola Ward, music by the quirky Captain Blunderface, and our show is produced by Accorda Sound.

Today's story, The Velveteen Rabbit, is adapted for the old library from the work of Marjorie Williams.

So go give your pets and stuffed animals a big hug, and we will see you next week on...

Stories from Now and Then

and the novel treats these threats with a seriousness that surprised readers who expected a cosy animal story.

Marjorie Williams's The Velveteen Rabbit, published in 1922, explores the idea of a stuffed toy rabbit becoming real through the love of a child.

In Japanese culture, rabbits have been popular artistic subjects for centuries, appearing in paintings, woodblock prints, and textile designs.

The Chojugiga, a set of 12th-century Japanese scroll paintings, features rabbits and frogs acting out human activities, and is sometimes called the first manga.