Stevie Smith was one of the most popular poets of the twentieth century. Her originality lay in her very particular way of looking at the world: she seems never to have lost the fanciful and undaunted habit of questioning and noticing things that she had when young.

This selection is made with younger readers in mind. It introduces us to an imaginative, anarchic realm where anything is possible, a world where fairy stories and real life are interchangeable. A galloping cat, a frog prince, a girl who possesses a magically transforming hat and a parrot who may have witnessed a dreadful crime - these are just some of the extraordinary characters we meet along the way.