Adventures of the Wishing-Chair
Bedtime Stories Magic Adventure Picture Book Children's Fantasy Collectible Children's Books Early Readers Classic British Children's Literature
First-edition Enid Blyton hardbacks are becoming scarce, especially in the eye-catching 1982 Dean & Son “De Luxe” format. This 116-page picture book, Adventures of the Wishing-Chair, is one of those collectible copies children of the 1980s remember finding under the Christmas tree: generous page size, gold-stamped covers, and the magical Georgina Hargreaves colour plates that make the winged chair, pixies and castles glow. Because it was printed only once in this deluxe specification, every surviving jacketed copy is snapped up by Blyton completists and vintage-children’s-book investors.
Inside, the text is the classic quest chain young readers adore—Mollie and Peter discover a chair that grows red feathers and whisks them to fantastic lands where they outwit giants, witches and grumpy brownies. The chapters are long enough to stretch newly confident readers (ages 7-9) yet broken into lively episodes perfect for four-page bedtime segments. Blyton’s gentle moral tone and rhythmic “away-home-again” structure make the book an ideal bridge between picture books and full-length junior novels, while Hargreaves’ illustrations keep visual learners turning pages.
Condition notes show honest shelf evidence—dust jacket has a short edge tear and a cosmetic spine cut, but the laminated art is still bright, the boards beneath are firm, and every illustrated page is crisp, unmarked and tightly bound. For collectors, a first-printing Dean deluxe with the jacket present is already a four-figure book in fine condition; this clean-reading copy offers the same nostalgic artwork and copyright page points at a fraction of that price, making it both a readable bedtime favourite and a sensible future investment.
Refer to our eBay listing for a full condition report and many more high-quality pictures of this item.
Buy Now