Tiny fairy story in royal dolls’ house to be made a bit easier on the eye

With pages scarcely bigger than a postage stamp and intricate drawings by a celebrated cartoonist, the miniature volume is a prized object in the Royal Collection.

But from next month youngsters everywhere will have the chance to read the story about a fairy called Joe Smith and his adventures when he falls out of fairyland and lands in London.

The hardback children’s story J Smith by Fougasse – real name Cyril Kenneth Bird – is published by Walker Books in collaboration with Royal Collection Publications on May 3, priced £10.

The hand-written book measures just 1.6 in (4cm) by 1.4in (3.5cm) and is one of 200 volumes in the miniature library of the dolls’ house created for Queen Mary, consort of King George V, in 1922 by renowned architect Sir Edwin Lutyens.

It has fully furnished rooms, electricity, running water and lifts and is kept at Windsor Castle.

More than 170 authors are featured in tiny books for the house’s library including Thomas Hardy, Rudyard Kipling, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Edith Wharton.