The Mermaid's Purse

In The Mermaid's Purse, Ted Hughes introduces us to a marvellous array of characters who live in and around the sea, among them a bashful mussel, a boastful limpet, a thieving sandflea and an orphaned seal; and he lets us see just how it feels to be a pebble or a shell or to come face to face with a sea monster.

Flora McDonnell, who is a previous winner of the Mother Goose Award, brings her own love of the sea to bear on these pages.