N.P: n.p, n.d. ca. 1944. So far we have found no evidence that this strategic game was ever published. It’s concept is slightly complex, which may account for it never coming to fruition. Fortunately, some of the drawings and initial pencilled instructions have been saved, witnessing the brilliant imagination of Helen Haywood. Haywood, born in 1907, was a prolific illustrator (publishers included Thomas Nelson, Hutchinson & Co.) with a special gift for rendering plants and animals. Also, she executed fore-edge paintings and binding art work for Bayntun Riviere Bindery in Bath. In fact, she was the granddaughter of binder Robert Riviere. (For photographs of her work on bindings see Stephen J. Gertz’s article, “The Binding Paintings of Helen R. Haywood” in his blog, BOOKTRYST, Oct. 3, 2012). The list of her illustrated books is long and includes the “Peter Tiggywig” series, “Animal Playtime” and “Animal Worktime”. She was keenly sensitive to all aspects of animal life and, in fact, the Royal Academy of Sciences cited her for her skin colour choices in her 1964 book, “The Days of the Dinosaurs” (see “Helen Haywood”, Wikipedia). In the proposal for this game, Haywood notes that “All you need is a box of paints - or coloured crayons + a pair of nail scissors.” She then describes a strip of folded paper labelled with 4 letters of which only “A” is already coloured. “B,C,and D are separate sections of shapes waiting to be painted. The child/reader was to look for the number on the shapes to be coloured and find the colour on the key. Once the painting process was finished, the child was to refold the paper strip and cut along the dark line on picture A. “Now pull the pictures out and the puzzle pictures are solved! ” If we correctly interpret the 2 groups of colour strips provided in Haywood’s sketches, the three uncoloured pictures are an abstraction and the coloured one presents the character or characters in colour. Once the instructions are followed and the four piece panel is folded, the cutting begins along the black lines and 4 separate and realistic colour co-ordinated figures emerge to be used in making up any story. It would be quite a magic moment for any child to finish cutting and end up with understandable figures that were a blur at the beginning of the process. Two of the finished colour strips made by Haywood bear some pencilled text at the bottom margin, including one set with French translation. Perhaps a French version had been planned. The closest we have come to finding any published work similar to this is THE HELEN HAYWOOD COLOUR BOOK with stories by Isobel St Vincent ( 1944). We have not been able to examine this title ( COTSEN 37349), but there is no suggestion that it is a game. A unique and challenging item. From the mind of a fore-edge painter. Four cardboard strips, 10 x 25.3 cm, each with 4 panels of original colour designs ;“text” in pencil beneath each panel; 3 cardboard strips 10 x 25.3 cm, and one measuring is 9x25.3 cm; with four panels each of hand-coloured designs cut out and pasted onto coloured background; one sheet of tracing paper with penciled text explaining how the game works; five sheets of tracing paper with penciled drawings; preliminary for title page in pencil showing “Designed by Helen Haywood” and, beneath, two indecipheral words ( names of collaborators, publishers?) in pencil.