The Thomas the Tank Engine Collection - Rev. W. Awdry

The Revd Wilbert Vere Awdry was born on June 15th 1911 at Romsey in Hampshire. He lived as a child near the main Great Western line from Paddington to Bristol at Box, Wiltshire, where he developed his love of steam engines by listening to them at night and imagining that they were talking to one another. In 1942 he made up stories for his 2 year old son, Christopher, who was unwell with the measles. He later pointed out that he had to eventually write the details down because he would never be forgiven should he even get the slightest thing wrong. Eventually the first book was published in ... more

These are some of the most enduring children’s stories that have been written, as although the first book was written 55 years ago they are still popular. For me the one thing that makes the stories is the artwork as the quality of it is rarely seen in modern children’s books. The stories are well written and any kid who loves these as much as I did will know their favourite off by heart. There are many stories about all the engines, but due to his TV, and now film, exposure most kids will have heard of Thomas. This book contains all the 26 stories that where written by the Rev. Wilbert Awdry ... more

This is a good quality storybook containing great illustrations and enough stories to keep any Thomas fan in bedtime stories for life! The only problem is that it's not really a book they can look at by themselves (unless they're quite a bit older than my 4 year old, by which time they've probably grown out of Thomas). For that reason ours tends to sit on the shelf and gets forgotton about as I can't keep it down with most of our other kids books, which is on their own book shelf so they can help themselves. It is however a nice book for some bonding time as you can snuggle up and have a good ... more