Mary Gernat

[Anita Bensoussane]

I'm surprised The Six Bad Boys is not now called The Six Misunderstood Children, who go round tickling people with feathers!

Going back to Mary Gernat, she did two covers for quite a few of the Find-Outers titles, including these vivid and evocative covers for The Mystery of the Missing Man. My copy, which I've had since childhood, has the second of the two designs:

[Moonraker]

I agree, Anita. They are not "bad boys", just misunderstood children with behavioural issues.

[Courtenay]

I agree, Anita. They are not "bad boys", just misunderstood children with behavioural issues.

You mean, like these ones?

[Moonraker]

Spot on!

[Tony Summerfield]

I don't know if anybody has noticed but there is some Mary Gernat artwork for sale on ebay at the moment.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/221782701109? ... EBIDX%3AIT" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I'm sorry but I should have read the description before posting as this is just a print of the artwork and not the actual thing!!

[Lucky Star]

Interesting that it is her child selling it. I wonder if there are others for sale. It's lovely but £35 is a bit steep for me to pay for a print. I suppose an original would be much more. Thanks for the link Tony.

[Julie2owlsdene]

It's a nice print, and it's on good watercolour paper too. Not a bad price for a print. I have friends who sell their prints for much more than £35.

[Courtenay]

Very interesting! I assume that the seller is Roger, Mary Gernat's son, who contacted us some months ago about his plans to produce prints of his mother's artwork - this is from the first post in this thread...

Hi there, My name is Roger How and my mum was Mary Gernat. She was an illustrator for Enid Blyton throughout the '60s and early '70s. She was contracted to Armada and Atlantic publishers. She would receive a job to do with a vague brief, which she would then do and send off to the publishers. They would then either accept it as is or return it with suggestions as to what needed to be changed. usually so there was enough room left for the wording. Mum did nearly always the jacket covers rather than the insides.Myself and my three brothers were always being asked to pull on a rope or pretend toclimb a tree as we were her subjects.When the publishers were happy with a cover they always returned the artwork , with margin notes, and with the final printed book cover. my mum safety clipped them together where they went into a cupboard and forgotten.I am in the process of scanning them all and intend to print them using high quality pigment based inks onto cotton based Bockingford paper. I then intend to sell them through a website, still in the making, On each print would be the original artwork along side the final bookcover, in either A4 or A3.
The idea is that they would make lovely unique gifts to fans of Enid Blyton. Bearing in mind that she illustrated literaly dozens and dozens books, there will be quite a choice including, Famous Five, the Pony books, mallory towers, St. Clares, the Mystery books and many others...............thanks for reading......roger

I'm not interested in St Clare's, having not read the books (though it looks like a very good print at a reasonable price), but I might be interested in some of the other book covers, if Roger is selling prints of them as well.

[Moonraker]

I'm not interested in St Clare's, having not read the books

Then may I suggest you do so?

[Courtenay]

Why should I?

[Moonraker]

To see if you like them?

[Julie2owlsdene]

I always say that before you knock something you should try it first.

I'm not into fantasy books, such as Faraway Tree etc. But I couldn't knock it, as I hadn't read it. So I did try and read it and tried to persevere, but I just couldn't get into it, and I did read half the book, so I now know I can safely say, I don't like this sort of book.

[Rob Houghton]

I agree the St Clare's books are well worth reading. I think I prefer them slightly to the Malory Towers books. Mind you, I also love the Faraway Tree books...but realize that my taste for Enid Blyton's is all-encompassing as there really isn't a genre she wrote that I don't like. Maybe I'm just not very discerning!

[Poppy]

All Enid Blyton's Boarding School stories are so different, in my opinion - it's hard to choose a favourite, but the St.Clares series definitely are great books! Pat and Isabel are fascinating characters, and although, on first impressions they aren't very likable, it's great to see them progressively improving throughout the series. There's a couple of books by Pamela Cox, which fill in the missed out year groups, too, which I would also recommend. I particularly enjoyed Kitty at St Clares which involved a couple of very entertaining tricks!

[pete9012S]

Mary Gernat

If you would like to see some of the book covers illustrated by Mary Gernat, you can find the books in the box on the floor in the corner at Picture Perfect, Barnes Farm Business Park, Milford on Sea, or at http://www.theartofenidblyton.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.theartofenidblyton.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I stumbled upon this treasure trove when I went to visit local picture framer, Roger How. As a lover of anything remotely ‘Blytonesque’, I was intrigued as to what this lot was doing on the floor…if there’s one thing that appeals to the jaded palette of us baby boomers it’s a peek back to the past - those happy, care free days of childhood adventures and the big outdoors.

“Mary Gernat was my mum,” said Roger. “She lived and worked in Lymington and illustrated over one hundred and twenty book covers for authors such as Enid Blyton, Monica Edwards, Richmal Crompton, Captain W. E. Johns, Frank Richards and the Pullein-Thompson sisters. My family is now the fortunate owners of the copyright of all the illustrations.”

http://www.hampshire-life.co.uk/out-abo ... _1_4289416" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


See also:

In 2015 I was contacted by Roger How, one of Mary's sons, who told me that a large number of his mother's 'roughs' for original cover art had been discovered in a drawer, including the original drafts for Cargo of Horses, Fire in the Punchbowl, and Spirit of Punchbowl Farm.
This confirmed what had been suspected, that these were, indeed, the work of his mother. I have my suspicions about others, and there may well be more corrections that have to be made as we learn more from Mary's original drafts.
The 'rough' for Cargo of Horses is shown at the bottom of the page.

http://www.monicaedwards.co.uk/mg.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;