Rediscovered, beautifully illustrated in ink and introduced by Jackie Morris
Shortlisted for the Waterstones Book of the Year in 2019.

Little Eepersip doesn’t want to live in a house with doors and windows and a roof. Her heart calls out for the smell of the earth, the wind rushing through the high branches, the gentle buzz and hum of midsummer insects. So she runs away to live in the wild.- first in the Meadow, then by the Sea, and finally in the Mountain. Her heartbroken parents follow her, bringing her back home to ‘safety’ and locking her up in the stifling square of the house. But she slips away once more, following her wild heart out of the door and far away.

Barbara Newhall Follett was just twelve years old when she published The House Without Windows in 1927. The book went on to become a million-copy bestseller. Years later, as an adult, Barbara followed in the footsteps of her radical heroine, she walked out of her house one evening with $ 30 in her pocket and was never seen again. The mystery of her dissapearance remains unsolved.

Barbara Newhall Follett’s extraordinary feminist fable was written almost a century ago and yet it speaks with a clarity and urgency that the next generation of escapees and wild souls will surely recognize.  Newly introduced by Jackie Morris, and filled with her beautifully inked artwork, The House Without Windows is an irresistible paean to the natural world and its transcendent effect on the human heart.

Her introduction extracted here in the Guardian

‘An exceptional book, an extraordinary piece of writing about the wild that exists within each of us, an utterly intriguing story about its author Barbara Newhall-Follett and Jackie’s illustrations and introduction showcase it to the fullest. With discussions around climate change and the extinction rebellion, it also feels incredibly timely’ Jake Hope (Chair of the Youth Libraries Group and newly elected Chair of the Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medal)