Gifts For New Mothers
Nothing can beat Kate Greenaway’s timeless images of childhood. For Mother’s Day, we have put together two Greenaway keepsake bundles, each containing a book and a card, which make charming gifts for new mothers.
Kate Greenaway was a freelance artist and writer who became a publishing sensation in the 1880s, painting nostalgic images of mothers and children in village settings to accompany her stories and poems.
She dressed her characters in picturesque clothing inspired by late 18th and early 19th century fashion, a choice that was initially seen as highly unusual.
Despite being shy in her personal life, she was so confident in her artistic vision that she took her books straight to a specialist colour printer, bypassing publishers. Soon she had made enough money to commission a new house in Hampstead from the well-known architect Norman Shaw.
Far from attracting ridicule, she kicked off a resurgence of Regency fashion, becoming the Laura Ashley of her age. Liberty began selling clothes modelled on her illustrations.
You can find out more about her impact on the modern love of regency fashion here.
Doyenne of Children’s Illustrators
Although she died at the early age of 55 in 1901, her fame lived on for decades. Generations of children were brought up on her alphabet book A Apple Pie and had their nurseries decorated with her alphabet frieze. She was as well known in America and Europe as in England and remained synonymous with childhood right up to the 1960s and 1970s. Her name is commemorated to this day in the Kate Greenaway Medal, awarded every year for outstanding work by a children’s artist.
Two Albums to Choose From
As a tribute to Kate Greenaway, and to celebrate Mother’s Day, we created two keepsake albums illustrated with her timeless paintings. ‘No one has given us such clear-eyed, soft-faced, happy-hearted childhood,’ wrote the poet Austin Dobson during her lifetime. Our books have kept her vision alive and proved hugely popular in their turn.
If you would like to give a baby book, you have two to choose from, a larger one covering the first five years and a pocket-sized version for just the first year. Both are discounted for Mother’s Day.
To order The Kate Greenaway Baby Book: A Record of the First Five Years at £12.70 and get a New Baby Card free, click here and enter the coupon code 74KGBB0326
To order The Kate Greenaway First Year Baby Book at £8.49 and get a New Baby Card free, follow this link and enter the coupon code 74KGBF0326.
We can gift wrap your book for £3.00 if you wish. Just add the gift wrapping option when you place your order.
Until They Go to School
Filled with pretty and nostalgic paintings, The Kate Greenaway Baby Book is a keepsake album in which you can record the small landmarks in your child’s life from birth to five years old. It was created by our picture editor Karin Hills when her three children were little, and it is infused with the lived understanding of a mother adjusting to daily life when family responsibilities pile up on top of professional duties. It is practical, with spaces to fill in when the first teeth came through and which vaccinations were given when, as well as sentimental, with sections for First Words and Funny Sayings and Incidents. Writing them down will ensure that these fleeting moments are preserved for ever.
In the week before Mother’s Day, you can order the book with a 15% discount. Pay £12.70 instead of the standard price of £14.95 and we’ll enclose a complimentary New Baby Card drawn by the comic artist William Heath Robinson. The card is worth £2.50, so you make a total saving of £5.05, with post and packing free.
Just the First Year
A baby’s first year is full of totally novel moments from First Day, First Smile and First Crawl through to First Expressions and First Birthday. The Kate Greenaway First Year Baby Book is pocket-sized, so you can pop it into your handbag, glove compartment or baby bag and record these special moments wherever they occur.
With this easily portable book, you have every opportunity to record their most memorable early milestones. When your child reaches maturity, you will be able to hand them the history of their early months that you managed to write down even when you had just changed a nappy or struggled on to a bus with a pushchair.
In the week before Mother’s Day, you can also order this book with a 15% discount. Pay £8.49 instead of the usual published price of £9.99 and we’ll enclose a complimentary New Baby Card drawn by Heath Robinson. That gives you a total saving of £4.00, with post and packing free.
A Bit of Lightheartedness
One of the firsts that new parents experience is, inevitably, sleeplessness. So we called on the master contraptioneer William Heath Robinson to provide an effective solution – and perhaps bring a jaded smile to weary mother’s face. With every baby book ordered on our UK website, we will send a complimentary copy of this card.
