The real beauty, tenderness and gaiety of childhood is an elusive
thing--too elusive often to be caught and pressed into words. By some
magic of his own Hugh Walpole has made live again in Jeremy the
childhood that we all knew and that we turn back to with infinite
longing.
With affectionate humorousness, Mr. Walpole tells the story of Jeremy
and his two sisters, Helen and Mary Cole, who grow up in Polchester, a
quiet English Cathedral town. There is the Jam-pot, who is the nurse;
Hamlet, the stray dog; Uncle Samuel, who paints pictures and is
altogether "queer"; of course, Mr. and Mrs. Cole, and Aunt Amy.
Mr. Walpole has given his narrative a rare double appeal, for it not
only recreates for the adult the illusion of his own happiest youth, but
it unfolds for the child-reader a genuine and moving experience with
real people and pleasant things. No child will fail to love the birthday
in the Cole household, the joyous departure for the sea and the country
in the long vacation.
"A story of the most human elements, tender, witty, penetrating in a
breath. It is the study of one year in a boy's life.... Mr. Walpole
goes straight to the heart of the child for his inspiration, and never
strays outside the narrow limits of a child's experience. It is 'the
real thing,' wonderfully remembered, and most sympathetically and
unaffectedly recorded."--_Daily Telegraph_.