This book is part of the Modern-Day Miniature Library: a contemporary collection of miniature handwritten and hand-bound books that has been assembled to celebrate 100 years since Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House was completed in 1924.

Of the nearly 600 books on the shelves of the Dolls' House Library, over 170 are tiny manuscripts handwritten by the most notable authors of the 1920s. Together, these create a time capsule of literary culture of the 1920s.

Echoing the process of a century ago, today's writers were again asked to write by hand in miniature format. Their little pages were bound by leading contemporary designer-binders. After being displayed in an exhibition at Windsor Castle during 2024, the new collection of doll-size books will be kept together in the Royal Library.

Simon Armitage is the Poet Laureate for 2019 to 2029. His poem, written with one word for each page, has been bound by Matt Stockl, Conservator Bookbinder at the Royal Bindery.

The pastoral nature of the poem is reflected in the gold-tooled binding of hand-dyed green goatskin with onlays of relief-dyed terracotta goatskin. A red-brick wall keeps, in the words of the poem, ‘nothing in, nothing out,’ and offers ‘no shelter,’ amongst the bullrushes and vetch.