I is for… Ireland

'I is for... Ireland' blog post banner

detail of vintage book cover, 'This is Ireland' by Miroslav Sasek | H is for Home

detail of vintage book cover, 'This is Ireland' by Miroslav Sasek | H is for Home

It’s been a while since we’ve done one of our alphabet blog posts – but the arrival of this book fitted in nicely with where we left off… so, I is for Ireland.

page from vintage book, 'This is Ireland' by Miroslav Sasek featuring Irish green double-decker buses | H is for Home

The book is from the This is… series by Miroslav Sasek.

page from vintage book, "This is Ireland" by Miroslav Sasek featuring Irish pub interior

We’ve mentioned him quite a few times in blogs but, any excuse!!

page from vintage book, "This is Ireland" by Miroslav Sasek featuring rolling green fields and sheep

We absolutely adore his stuff!

page from vintage book, "This is Ireland" by Miroslav Sasek featuring shop frontage of Patrick O'Brien general store

This is Ireland, published in 1964, is no exception. He captured the quiet countryside and the hustle & bustle of town life with equal charm – the scenery, buildings, characters – day to day life.

page from vintage book, "This is Ireland" by Miroslav Sasek featuring the busy main thoroughfare, O'Donnell Street

It’s been added to our ever growing pile of Sasek books – a pile that shows no sign of abating. Each new book is greeted with the same excited anticipation.

collection of vintage books by Miroslav Sasek | H is for Home

There were two more arrivals this week – This is Israel and This is New York.

pair of vintage books, "This is Isreal" and "This is New York" by Miroslav Sasek | H is for Home

They’re both very welcome additions to our collection…

page from vintage book, "This is New York" by Miroslav Sasek featuring skyscrapers and pink stretch Cadillac | H is for Home

New York in particular lends itself to his stylised characters and distortions of scale – just wonderful! Page after page of classic illustrations. The accompanying words are very sweet too.

page from vintage book, "This is New York" by Miroslav Sasek featuring an all American diner | H is for Home

We’ll post more illustrations from this particular book – they deserve a post of their own!

7 thoughts on “I is for… Ireland

  1. They are wonderful books. I've never come across an old one.

    Though this post has prompted me to think some of the new reprints would be good gifts for Santa to bring.

    Thank you.

  2. Love the graphics in those books! I need to start checking out children's books at the thrift store more often. I have this feeling that I'm missing out on a lot of great illustrations like these.

  3. Thank you for posting this! I am officially in love! It is now my mission to get a hold of some of these. I'm obsessed with Ireland, so I have to find this one! Vintage, Ireland, children's lit…all my favorite things. 🙂

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