Carolyn Dinan - Famous Five Omnibus

Enid used many illustrators in her books. Discuss them here.
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pete9012S
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Carolyn Dinan - Famous Five Omnibus

Post by pete9012S »

Image

My recent purchase of Famous Five Together published 1974 finally revealed who the illustrator of the front cover jacket is!

(I have been after this book for quite some time,but the only copy available was priced at £23 without dustwrapper which I thought was a little steep!)

I have long wanted to see the entire dust wrapper to this book as the cave shows the front view.
I will attempt a better scan,but for now is a photo from my mobile phone.

Image
I presume Carolyn Dinan is the illustrator of the front cover of the 1973 companion volume Fabulous Famous Five?

(again the cave shows the front cover only - I would love to see the complete cover if anyone is able to scan and post it??)


Carolyn has illustrated other books and written a few herself too.

Oxford Encyclopedia of Children's Literature:
Carolyn Dinan
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Home Library Miscellaneous Oxford Articles

(1942–), author and illustrator of children's books. Skilled in numerous styles, Dinan uses tinted line drawings and pen-and-ink to bring characters to life. A graduate of the Chelsea Art School (London), Dinan is a visiting lecturer in illustration. She has illustrated more than twenty children's books, including Gene Kemp's Tamworth Pig series, Peter Clover's Donkey series, Robin Stemp's Guy and the Flowering Plum Tree (1981), and Christobel Mattingley's Worm Weather (1971). She has illustrated for writers such as Catherine Storr and Robert Swindells, and she has also written and illustrated her own books, including Say Cheese! (1986) and Skipper and Sam (1984).

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/carolyn-di ... z3DVmg01Fw" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The internal illustrations to both books are the work of Betty Maxey.


Another front cover by Carolyn is The Little Donkey from 1973,which is in the cave.
Image

A little bit more about Carolyn Dinan Spencer can be found here;

http://blog.primelocation.com/2014/07/2 ... in-surrey/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Has she illustrated any other Enid Blyton books I wonder?
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Re: Carolyn Dinan - Famous Five Omnibus

Post by Tony Summerfield »

pete9012S wrote:I presume Carolyn Dinan is the illustrator of the front cover of the 1973 companion volume Fabulous Famous Five?
A correct presumption! I have added her name to the Cave on both books to make you a happy boy, as I have been caving all day a little thing like that is no problem. The wraparound covers are a bit more difficult as they don't fit on a scanner and have to be done as two and joined together which is certainly possible as I have done it with many other covers but it needs a bit of time and patience!
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Re: Carolyn Dinan - Famous Five Omnibus

Post by Katharine »

I rather like that D/W, although the monkey looks a little odd. Maybe it's just because the D/W isn't quite flat at that section, as he looks out of proportion.
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Re: Carolyn Dinan - Famous Five Omnibus

Post by Wolfgang »

I think it's a chimp and doesn't look that bad.
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Re: Carolyn Dinan - Famous Five Omnibus

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

I think it's a chimp too, probably Pongo, as the cover appears to show a scene from Five Go Off in a Caravan (with Nobby in the boat).
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Re: Carolyn Dinan - Famous Five Omnibus

Post by Farwa »

Very pretty illustrations!
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Re: Carolyn Dinan - Famous Five Omnibus

Post by Tony Summerfield »

Specially for you Pete! It is not perfect, but it is the closest I can get.

http://enidblytonsociety.co.uk/book-det ... amous+Five" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: Carolyn Dinan - Famous Five Omnibus

Post by Julie2owlsdene »

The Fabulous F.F is quite a nice illustration, apart from Timmy looking as if he's about to fall into the sea! :lol:

Very colourful.

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Re: Carolyn Dinan - Famous Five Omnibus

Post by pete9012S »

Thanks Tony for the full frontal (FFF). :D :D

The Omnibus edition Fabulous Famous Five contains three books in one; Five Get Into Trouble,Five Fall Into Adventure & Five On A Hike Together.

What scene (if any) from those three books does the front cover represent?
I think we can dismiss Hike,so that leaves two???

Also,the front cover from Famous Five Together pictures a scene from Five Go Off In A Caravan,I agree with Anita.
They look like they are waiting for the all clear from Nobby.
I can't remember what Nobby waiving a white sheet indicated? Safety or danger? Also,was the chimp with the Five when Nobby was waiving away or has the illustrator taken 'liberties'...again I can't quite remember! :D
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Re: Carolyn Dinan - Famous Five Omnibus

Post by Moonraker »

It was a red sheet for danger. I would guess the illustration on the other book would be from Fall. I don't remember George having a sailing boat though...
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Re: Carolyn Dinan - Famous Five Omnibus

Post by Tony Summerfield »

It is not Wednesday today it is Peteday!! :lol:

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Re: Carolyn Dinan - Famous Five Omnibus

Post by pete9012S »

Image

Nigel,how could you,and a Soper classic as well! :wink:

Tony,that image is beautiful.You can see how much the spine on my book above has faded through time.
It shows that the whole scene is spread out over the front and rear cover like the Adventure books as I've always suspected.

Obviously not in Uncle Cecil's class,but not as dire as some of the cartoon covers of late,only in my humble opinion of course! :D
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Re: Carolyn Dinan - Famous Five Omnibus

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Moonraker wrote:I would guess the illustration on the other book would be from Fall. I don't remember George having a sailing boat though...
I agree that it looks like Fall Into Adventure. George's boat does have a sail as Enid Blyton writes, "Dick put up the little sail. The wind was in their favour so he thought he might as well use it." However, I think only Julian, Dick and Jo are supposed to be in the boat!
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Re: Carolyn Dinan - Famous Five Omnibus

Post by Courtenay »

pete9012S wrote: Obviously not in Uncle Cecil's class,but not as dire as some of the cartoon covers of late,only in my humble opinion of course! :D
I totally agree, Pete. Not in the league of the classics, and the children's clothing is still too modern, but they're both otherwise very colourful and quite pleasing illustrations that look believably like the Five. Unlike certain more recent ones where they look like this...

Image

or this...

Image

or even this...

Image

:x :x :x
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Re: Carolyn Dinan - Famous Five Omnibus

Post by Moonraker »

I stand corrected! :oops:
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