Betty Maxey illustrations (Famous Five)

[Courtenay]

The spelling of "George" is the really funny one: Τζώρτζ

Which transliterates in our alphabet as Tzortz!

[pete9012S]

I'm really glad you're enjoying these, guys.
Only a few books more to go.

Yes,Escanor,you're right.
I was looking at the list of all the books scanned available on page one of this thread...

Here's a list of all the links to the books scanned in one place;

1.............

2.Five Go Adventuring Again - Betty Maxey Illustrations (1974)
http://share.pho.to/4v5JK" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

3.Five Run Away Together - Betty Maxey Illustrations (1974)
http://share.pho.to/4pCf8" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

4. Five Go To Smugglers Top - Betty Maxey Illustrations (1974)
http://share.pho.to/4pVi8" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

5.Five Go Off In A Caravan - Betty Maxey Illustrations (1974)
http://share.pho.to/4rDHl" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

6......................

7. Five Go Off to Camp - Betty Maxey Illustrations (1974)
http://share.pho.to/521m8" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

8. Five Get Into Trouble - Betty Maxey Illustrations (1968)
http://share.pho.to/4rgQI" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

9.Fall Into Adventure - Betty Maxey Illustrations (1968)
http://share.pho.to/4tzCa" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

10.Five On A Hike Together - Betty Maxey Illustrations (1968)
http://share.pho.to/4orSH#" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

11................................

12.Five Go Down To The Sea - Betty Maxey Illustrations (1974)
http://share.pho.to/4sg6S" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

13...................................

14.....................................

15. Five On A Secret Trail - Betty Maxey Illustrations
http://share.pho.to/6PoSx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

16. Five Go To Billycock Hill - Betty Maxey Illustrations (1974)
http://share.pho.to/4po8Z" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

17.Five Get Into A Fix - Betty Maxey Illustrations (1974)
http://share.pho.to/4rIsO" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

18. Five On Finniston Farm - Betty Maxey Illustrations (1974)
http://share.pho.to/4q1Ds" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

19. Five Go to Demon's Rocks - Betty Maxey Illustrations (1974)
http://share.pho.to/4pQAe" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

20. Five Have a Mystery to Solve - Betty Maxey Illustrations (1974)
http://share.pho.to/53Xvh" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

21. Five Are Together Again- Betty Maxey Illustrations
http://share.pho.to/5pt7x

More will be added as we go along.

[walter raleigh]

Great thread this! I'm a big fan of Betty Maxey's illustrations as they were the ones I was familiar with from the Green Knight paperbacks when growing up. I know it's considered akin to heresy in these parts but I prefer Maxey's painted covers to the Eileen Soper ones, although I'm a bit more ambivalent when it comes to the inside illustrations. I generally prefer Soper's these days but there are occasions when I think Maxey captures the moment better.

[pete9012S]

Hooray!
Well done Walter.Another Betty Maxey supporter.
Soon there will be as many of us as have read the anecdotage!!

[walter raleigh]

Although Maxey's choices on what details she chooses to depict are a little idiosyncratic at times, and I'm not a big fan of the 'modern' clothes the children wear*, I'm very fond of Betty's illustrations. They somehow seem to have a very childlike innocence to them, which I find more appealing than Eileen Soper's more polished style.

*as a sidenote, the fashions Maxey depicts must look just as archaic to today's children as Soper's did to us in our childhood. Ah well, tempus fugit I suppose.

[daanton]

A really good graphic presentation of the Betty Maxey style.

BTW...

Here's a list of all the links to the books scanned in one place;

[...]

2.Five Go Adventuring Again - Betty Maxey Illustrations (1974)
http://share.pho.to/4v5JK" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Nice to see you uploaded the front and back of the "TV cover(s)" paperback version, too! Scanned brightly enough to actually see Anne's (or Jennifer's?) facial expression....

[Escanor]

11. Five Have a Wonderful Time
http://share.pho.to/6ZusL" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This book was a tough one. There were some pictures with difficult angles, two of them were on both pages too. I hope you enjoy them still.

Which transliterates in our alphabet as Tzortz!

Yup! Ridiculous, isn't it?

Great thread this! I'm a big fan of Betty Maxey's illustrations as they were the ones I was familiar with from the Green Knight paperbacks when growing up. I know it's considered akin to heresy in these parts but I prefer Maxey's painted covers to the Eileen Soper ones, although I'm a bit more ambivalent when it comes to the inside illustrations. I generally prefer Soper's these days but there are occasions when I think Maxey captures the moment better.

Hooray!
Well done Walter.Another Betty Maxey supporter.
Soon there will be as many of us as have read the anecdotage!!

I'm glad our numbers are growing!

Only a few books more to go.

Yes,Escanor,you're right.
I was looking at the list of all the books scanned available on page one of this thread...

About that... I'm going to have to ask someone else to do the 6th book after all.

[Poppy]

Thanks Escanor. There are several illustrations here, that I really like: the one of Jo and the two horses. The horses are very well drawn - the detail is excellent. I wonder if the proportion is correct? Jo looks tiny compared to those horses! I also like the one of the children coming away from Faynights Castle - the old, mysterious building looming in the background. George's clothing in particular, is not exactly what I imagine when I picture the characters, but otherwise the children are excellently interpreted. The other illustration I love out of this particular selection is the one of the children climbing the stairs. It is such a memorable and exciting scene from the book that it compliments the text beautifully and in my opinion adds even more excitment.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Thanks very much, Escanor! This is one of my favourite sets of Betty Maxey drawings as the children, animals and castle are beautifully portrayed and the illustrations convey tension and drama. Jo's spirited personality is captured well, I think.

[walter raleigh]

Only a few books more to go.

Yes,Escanor,you're right.
I was looking at the list of all the books scanned available on page one of this thread...

About that... I'm going to have to ask someone else to do the 6th book after all.

I've finally got a day off on Monday so I might have a go if my scanner behaves itself.

[pete9012S]

That would be great Walter.It seems the illustrations by Betty Maxey are either dated 1974 or 1968 in the paperbacks.

[walter raleigh]

I have a paperback with the photo cover from the 70's TV series, which contains Betty Maxwell illustrations. Are there more illustrations (or different ones) in the earlier editions with the painted covers? My edition with the painted cover has Eileen Soper pictures.

On that note does anyone know if any of the early paperback editions used only Betty Maxey pictures from the very beginning? Most of them seem to use Soper's illustrations first and then switch over at some point. I've yet to see a copy of "Five Fall Into Adventure" without Betty Maxey's work inside, for example.

Ideally I'd like to have two sets of paberbacks, one with TV series covers (which as far as I can tell only had Maxey's illustrations) and one with Maxey's gorgeous and evocative painted covers but with Soper's pictures inside, but I'm not sure it's possible.

[Anita Bensoussane]

If you look at the Famous Five series in the Cave of Books, Walter, the publication dates and illustrators of the reprints are given. I don't think Betty Maxey ever redrew any of her internal illustrations, but one or two covers appear to have been redone.

[Escanor]

I'm glad you guys liked these illustrations!

I'm going to have to ask someone else to do the 6th book after all.

I've finally got a day off on Monday so I might have a go if my scanner behaves itself.

Thank you Walter. I'm in your debt.

[walter raleigh]

If you look at the Famous Five series in the Cave of Books, Walter, the publication dates and illustrators of the reprints are given. I don't think Betty Maxey ever redrew any of her internal illustrations, but one or two covers appear to have been redone.

Well yes but in this instance the usually infallible 'Cave' falls down. For instance I have two copies of "Five Go To Smugglers Top" with this Betty Maxey cover:



One of them contains all of Eileen Sopers Illustrations from the first edition and in the indicia it says "This edition first published 1967 by Knight Books Ninth impression 1973". The second one contains Betty Maxey illustrations and says "This edition first published 1967 by Knight Books Thirteenth impression 1977", but also contains the additional line "Illustrations Copyright 1974 Hodder & Stoughton Ltd" (which tallys with what Pete says above). Both books also have the same ISBN incidentally.

The Cave just lists Eileen Soper as Illustrator for this edition but in my opinion it should be split into two entries as obviously at some point after the ninth impression they switched from Sopers work to Maxey's. Given the 1974 copyright date for the illustrations logic would dictate this would be the cut off date for the switch. However I have a number of copies from after this date which still contain Eileen Soper's pictures. For instance again I've two copies of "Five On A Secret Trail" with this cover:



The first contains Sopers illustrations (as per The Cave). The copyright information reads "This edition first published 1970 by Knight Books Seventh impression 1975". The second has Maxey pictures and the copyright reads "This edition first published 1970 by Knight Books Ninth impression 1976" with the same extra line "Illustrations Copyright 1974 Hodder & Stoughton Ltd". Same ISBN once more.

Again surely this warrants an extra entry in The Cave as in my eyes they're effectively two different editions. Now clearly Tony doesn't have the time or funds to track down multiple impressions of each Famous Five Green Knight paperback, but maybe if we pool our resources we can pinpoint where the change took place in each book and maybe Pete could append it to the first post with the list of all the Illustrations in. Then once we have all the details in place and if we ask nicely Tony might update The Cave entries. If we're really lucky he might add all the Maxey illustrations Escanor has supplied us with too.

*Apologies if this has all been discussed ad nauseum previously but if it has I couldn't find it. I know it's quite an anal and esoteric point, but I would find the information useful so maybe others would too.