The Mind's Eye

[callmemadam]

I’m looking forward to watching Picture Book on BBC 4 this evening, which looks at the history of children’s illustrated books. I hope this won’t just mean picture books, important as they are, because for many people text illustrations in books intended for much older children are just as significant. I seem to have discussed this somewhere before but one can hardly imagine Arthur Ransome without the stick figures or Molesworth not illustrated by Ronald Searle (many people seem to think Searle wrote the books).

Victor Watson describes this effect very well in his wonderful book Reading Series Fiction. (As soon as this book came out, I ordered it from my local bookshop. I see I paid £13.99 for it, so it’s rather shocking that Amazon’s price has nearly doubled.) He writes, ‘At this point I ought to confess that at the age of ten I fell in love with Petronella Sterling, otherwise known as Peter, heroine of the Lone Pine series. …when recently I looked again at the first illustration (in Seven White Gates) …I found I remembered it in such detail as to suggest that as a boy I had studied it with some attention.’

Isn’t that just it? You come across a book you haven’t seen for years and view the pictures with a shock of recognition. With some books, the illustrations are an intrinsic part of the reading experience. Classics like Black Beauty, Heidi and Little Women have been reissued countless times with different illustrations; it doesn’t matter very much because no one artist has made a mark sufficient to link his or her work with the book forever. Beatrix Potter’s books are another matter and children are deprived, in my opinion, if they are given the Ladybird version of The Tale of Peter Rabbit rather than a copy with the original illustrations.
The British Council has a touring exhibition, Magic Pencil, curated by Quentin Blake. The National Portrait Gallery put on an exhibition of Portraits of Children’s Writers . If you visit Newcastle, you can see thousands of illustrations at the Seven Stories Centre for Children’s Books. It’s good to see so much interest in children’s books these days.




Joyce Lankester Brisley



Anne Bullen



Joan Kiddell Monroe

I could have picked so many more!

Comments

Best I could do on google

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

though the one I always think of is Aslan on his hind legs talking with the White Witch.



Janet and Anne Grahame Johnstone, who also brought us Tai-Lu.

Re: Best I could do on google

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Nice! They illustrated so many books but Tai-Lu is a well kept secret.

Your picture reminded me of Susan Einzig's illustrations for Tom's Midnight Garden.

[lethe1]

Enjoy the programme! They do make it sound as if it's only about picture books, though.

I have an edition of Little Women from the early 20th century, but it only has a frontispiece, no other illustrations.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

I have an edition of Little Women with lots of colour plates by Percy Tarrant. Very nice but I don't need pictures with that book.

[lethe1]

Ah yes, I see I misread that part.

Re: Ant and Bee

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

You've done well, as early editions now fetch amazing prices. Kind Dog is my favourite.

[vintagereads.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

That's a good point about Little Women. I'd not thought of that before, there are no memorable illustrations of that book. Just watched Picture Book and it was good, but I was hoping they would talk about more controversial illustrators - Sendak, for example. I kind of guessed even before I watched it that Michael Rosen, Shirley Hughes, Lauren Child etc would be taking part.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

I suppose the programme had to be selective. Interesting that they picked Brian Wildsmith and John Burningham. In my experience, their books are admired by adults but children don't like them much.

[susievereker.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

We don't have BBC4, but thank you for posting a Little Grey Rabbit illustration. I had about 15 LGR books and adored them. I do hope there are some up there in the chaos of my attic.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

I do hope you still have your LGR books! I've managed to get a full set but it's the ones I read as a child that I love best.