Seven Miles of Steel Thistles: The Scottish fairy tale 'Rashie Coat' illustrated by Joan Hassall

For more than a decade from the mid 1970s the artist Joan Hassall was a neighbour of my family in the Yorkshire Dales village of Malham. I was twenty in 1976 when she inherited Priory Cottage in the village, and she lived there until her death in 1988 at the age of 82. Joan was a skilled wood engraver who illustrated many, many books (you can read more about her life here). I was a bit too young to be a friend, but I knew her as a much-loved village figure, with her thick pebble glasses, beautiful smile and layers of flower-patterned skirts. She played a number of musical instruments and for some time was organist at the parish church of St Michael the Archangel. She attended our wedding there in 1987 – not to play the organ on that occasion, just to be there – and we can never forget how she came up to us after the ceremony, and with the sweetest smile said simply: 'Be happy!' It was a genuine blessing if ever there was one, and a command we've done our best to obey.

I have two or three books illustrated by Joan, and for me as a lover of fairy tales this one is special. She was commissioned to design and produce a series of chapbooks for the Saltire Society which was set up in 1936 to ‘promote and celebrate the uniqueness of Scottish culture and heritage’. The books are tiny – approximately 13 x 9cm – but the work is exquisite. This is number 12, published 1951. It is the old Scottish fairy tale of ‘Rashie Coat’ and I guess, though I cannot be sure, that the elegant signature on the flyleaf is Joan’s own writing. She was a fine artist and a lovely person. I hope you'll enjoy her work.