Such is the world we live in that crowdsourcing sites have sprung up across the net to help folks remember the titles of their favourite forgotten childhood books, movies and TV shows. In researching for this column, one such site helped me recall the title of my absolute favourite book as a child: Tales From Woodland. It was a collection of the entire Woodland Folk series by Knitting Iris (what a name) – an illustrated fantasy series about gnomes, fairies, giants, dragons and the like.
The compendium was ring bound and came with a plastic handle so you could carry it like a suitcase. I remember it being bigger than me! The stories were wonderfully unique and the illustrations charming and lovingly detailed. But the thing that set the Woodland Folk series apart from everything else was the fact that these illustration were, for the most part, annotated. There were cross sections of the elves’ tree stump home, chartered maps of the enchanted forest and schematics for the gnomes armoured “assault tower”. I became borderline obsessed with cross sections and annotated diagrams. I’ve never seen the films but I adored my book of Star Wars vehicle schematics. I had books detailing the insides of 19th century pirate ships, the human body and imaginary mechanical zoo animals. A favourite was the hugely popular The Way Things Work by David Macaulay, an illustrated tour through practically every appliance in your home, narrated by a woolly mammoth. It’s been recently rereleased and updated for the smartphone generation.