Little Black Sambo is Published

After depositing her small children in the cool of a hill station, Helen Bannerman decided to pass the two-day train journey back to Madras by writing and illustrating a picture book for them. With her usual resourcefulness as the active wife of an army doctor working for the Indian Medical Service, she started what was to become The Story of Little Black Sambo - a classic illustrated text which has never been out of print since. The first really small picture book designed for infants - her own were aged five and two at the time - it pre-dated by two years Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Peter Rabbit, also published in a child-friendly, diminutive format. It was as well the first picture book to portray black characters as quick-witted heroes rather than as simpletons or fall guys.