The start, and end, of the hunt... a truncated journey through 15 years

If you are currently not doing anything, and fancy looking for a needle in a haystack, start where I did in my hunt for THE BOOK back in 2009. Go and see how many Hans Andersen books come up on an image search under 1960s, 1970s, 1980s. You'll spot that there are, quite literally, 1000s.

You'll scroll through the first few pages, before it might then occur to you to:

A. Look on Amazon and eBay (Vinted wasn't a thing 15 years ago when this hunt started) to see if anything familiar came up - because they often have several 'inside' pictures, which is useful when you don't remember the cover or anything helpful like a title or illustrator.

So you'll start adding not THE BOOK books to your cart and wishlist in the hope that the algorithms might randomly suggest THE BOOK to you.

With no immediate success at that point, but undaunted and feeling exceeding determined to prove it exists, you might possibly also:

B. Resort to posting in a few book-friendly forums, asking for help and sharing what you knew about the book. You'd get a huge variety (number to be included here when I count!) of books (with helpful links) suggested.

Combing these two steps might result in:

* Recognising other not THE BOOK books you had.

* Purchasing a number of books that you hope might be THE BOOK but you can't be sure.

* And if you happen to enjoy beautiful illustrations and nostalgia, you'll absolutely end up with several 'I know this isn't it, but I can't resist it anyway' books.

In summary, I now have 7 'not but it might have been' THE BOOK books, 3 'very much not but were fond childhood friends' THE BOOK books, and at very long last... THE BOOK.

In a perfect insomnia driven bout of hunting for THE BOOK, I recently recognised a different childhood favourite, and bought it. Seconds later, at long last, THE BOOK popped up as a recommendation.

I immediately recognised the cover, so did a bit of digging through the available online images, trying to keep my excitement in check to avoid waking my husband.

It. Is. Glorious.

I can now share that THE BOOK:

* Exists and is not a figment of my imagination, or a random cobbling together of memories from different books

* Was printed through the early 80s in the UK and US

* Was actually illustrated by two people, who decided to take a rather novel approach with the illustrations, in that not only did the styles for each story vary quite dramatically, but sometimes within each story too.

* Has a purple/blue cover with illustrations that have exceedingly little to do with the illustrations inside. The interior illustrations were copyrighted in 1981, and I'm guessing that for some reason when it came to a UK / US pressing, they had to create a brand new cover with a different illustrator.

* Is called 'The Best of Hans Andersen'

* Is illustrated by Michele Danon-Marcho and Maya Filip

* The English text is by Claire Stewart

And it is just as weird, vivid and trippy as I remember it...

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Incidentally, I went back to the forums and left an update, and as a result at least two other people have rediscovered this book. I also spotted that back in October 2021, one single person on the 8 posts I created did, in fact, find and suggest it but I missed their comment. I let them know, and they were delighted to hear they were right, and that THE BOOK and I had finally found each other again.

That's the start and end of the hunt, but it's not going to be the end of this blog.

If you've been hunting for your own childhood favourite, and can't for the life of you remember many (or any!) helpful details, I'm going to be posting my little collection of not THE BOOK books, along with photos and helpful, useful details, in the hopes that my 15 years might actually save you a few.

I'm also going to pull together all the suggestions for THE BOOK that it wasn't, that I didn't buy, but which I looked through and know to be beautiful in their own way. Again, with all the details I can.

Because there's nothing quite like that 'Eureka!' moment when you finally find THE BOOK / TV show / Film / Song etc that you thought was lost to time.

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Book Stats (my copy)

Title: The Best of Hans Andersen

Author(s): Claire Stewart

Illustrator(s): Michèle Danon-Marcho, Maya Filip

Publisher: Treasure Press

Year of publication: 1983

Binding: Hardback with pictorial covers, no dust jacket

Pages: 235

ISBN: 0907812015

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Full blog: https://ed365per.wixsite.com/lostthetitlenotthepl