At first glance one expects this Mauchline binding to hold a typical late Victorian book of views. The top board features a view of 'Royal Pump Room Harrogate' transferred onto the wood in the usual way. However, when we open it, we discover that it is a book made expressly to keep a child amused. There are three leaves, each of card, each coated with a matt black surface designed to take chalk. The chalk can then be wiped off to make the page blank again. Two pages inside have some indecipherable scribbles, but the last page features a charming message from the grateful owner: ‘Mother is the nicest lady in the world and even better than a Queen God Bless her.’ Surviving examples of writing by the very young are surprisingly rare; commonplace books often feature work by teenagers but to see the hand of a child is unusual. I will be bringing many other manuscript items to the Harrogate fair, as well as a wide selection of works by women.