Three royal monkey brothers embark on a double quest to find both their father and the earthly paradise of Tishnar.

This is the first and possibly the most famous of de la Mare's children's books. It started as a series of stories he told his own children. An animal fable of

'No breath of wind, No gleam of sun Still the white snow Whirls softly down' As the day draws to a close, a family prepares for Christmas - decorating the tree,

Set in pre-World War I England, the story centers on the conflict between a coarse, blustering coal miner and his refined, working-class wife.