It was such a pleasure to read this book again. It was a staple of my childhood, and many of the hilarious (and wildly politically incorrect) verses are stuck forever in my memory, as are the quirky illustrations. Hilaire Belloc is ridiculously xenophobic, but - provided you can excuse him on the grounds that he wrote it in a very different age - wonderfully funny.
This is a book for a child aged around 8-10 (and for retarded adults like me) with a good sense of humour and history,and a strong feeling for words. I gave it to the son of a friend, and was delighted to see how much he enjoyed it.