Historian Robert Lacey’s new book Nursery Rhymes with Pictures—in which he showcases 82 nursery rhymes originally illustrated by Claud Lovat Fraser in the early 20th century—is a significant departure for the author. Lacey formed his own publishing house to bring this project to life and partnered with artist Ben Coppin to update the black-and-white illustrations for the 21st century. U.S. and Canada rights are available for the book.
You’re known as the historical consultant for The Crown, but your previous projects are also quite noteworthy. So why 19th-century nursery rhymes now?
I love words, I love stories. It’s why I enjoyed history so much in school: history is stories. And the wondrous thing about nursery rhymes isn’t simply that they’re little stories—it’s the power of what they convey.
Reviewers have said of my books that I have found powerful words and significance in unusual places. For example, it’s common now for biographers to write serious books about Queen Elizabeth II. But when I wrote Majesty, the queen was not considered a serious subject. It was a huge departure, and it took people by surprise. And so Majesty was my first major bestseller.
As you tell readers, you discovered Claud Lovat Fraser’s work from a Christmas card. How did you come to the decision to update his illustrations?
The card led me to the Royal Academy of Arts, where Fraser’s work had been preserved. And there I encountered a panorama of bold and vigorous artistry, the chief treasure being a volume of nursery rhymes illustrated by Fraser for his daughter, Helen.
The pages leapt to life with Fraser’s inventiveness, but more than half of his drawings were black-and-white. The publishing technology of the 1920s did not allow the production of a full-color book, and it occurred to me how wonderful it would be, a century later, to pay modern tribute to this forgotten creation.
I could immediately identify the ideal artist to apply the colorful touch: Ben Coppin, a 25-year-old illustrator from Southeast London with whom I was then working on the sardonic cartoons illustrating my book Battle of Brothers, about the rift between the princes William and Harry—not to mention their wives.
While we were applying some color to Lovat’s drawings, I suggested to Ben that we might also update the pictures to reflect the current world that our young readers encounter around them in all its 21st-century diversity. Rhymes and illustrations for now.
Speaking of Prince William and Prince Harry, do you think they’ll ever reconcile?
It’s two brothers defending their wives. It’ll take a while.
You were so engaged with Fraser’s work that you formed your own publishing company. Can you tell us more about that?
Once I’d made the decision to update the content, I realized the work also called for updated production techniques; traditional books consume so much of the planet’s resources. I’ve heard it argued that eco-respectful storybooks should only exist online. But it is surely the very essence of nursery rhymes that they provide a shared reading experience for children and adults when they are together.
There’s just no avoiding the paper. So how about making sure the pages are at least sustainable—FSC-certified, meaning that a new tree gets planted, or is allowed to regenerate, for each one cut down? How about using paper that has been recycled from used paper cups and other consumer waste for the decorative endpapers? I also discovered an innovative paper regenerated from the vegetable fiber of brewers’ hops.
I was able to enlist all these eco-friendly techniques because I was publishing the book myself. Don’t get me wrong—I’ve had some wonderful publishers in my enjoyable half-century of writing. Such success as I have enjoyed owes much to the skills of talented publishing editors, designers, and publicists. But I’ve always had a yen to try publishing myself.
And can we talk about how terrifying some nursery rhymes are?
Because children do have anxieties. We play games with children where we pretend to let them drop, and then we catch them. It’s all to do with coming to terms with falling and death, and it’s why darkness is a very important element of the nursery rhyme, along with humor and cheekiness. Claud Lovat Fraser and Ben Coppin perfectly captured the cheekiness of children.
The enduring power of nursery rhymes is that they bring children into contact with the realities of human emotion. And the joy of the language, the joy of rhyming, has been shown to help children with their reading abilities. A four-year-old who loves and recites nursery rhymes is a better-than-average reader by the time she’s eight.
Do you have a favorite nursery rhyme? And why?
Oh yes: “Lavender’s blue, dilly dilly/ Lavender’s green./ When I am king, dilly dilly/ You shall be queen.” So many children fantasize about being royalty at some point; I was no different. And the only thing we children were allowed to pick from the garden was the lavender.
What do you want readers to take away from Nursery Rhymes with Pictures?
I want it to bring children closer to their adults, and vice versa. Because reading tends to be a solitary experience, but you get the best out of nursery rhymes when you share.
MaryJanice Davidson is the bestselling author of several novels published across multiple genres.
