The Enid Blyton Society

The prints on the website are lovely, but are only prints, sad that these illustrators, such as Mary Gernat and Georgina Hargreaves don't have their original copies. I guess in those days, you sent off your original to the publisher, whereas these days, you'd keep your original and send them a printed copy.

I have a feeling that Roger How does have his mother's originals, as he was talking about exhibiting them somewhere. I think he just wanted to hang onto the originals and offer some as prints.

I am sure Roger How has plenty of original artwork for an exhibition, but when it comes to work on book covers the word 'original' refers to the actual artwork that was used for the published book and as far as the Enid Blyton covers are concerned I know that he only has the 'roughs' and none of the finished artwork that was used on the covers, Mary Gernat herself told me that the publishers kept it all.

I have put below two illustrations from the back cover of 'Strange Messages', the top one is the rough artwork and the one below from the actual book and you can see that although the general picture is the same, there are numerous small differences between the rough and the finished artwork.

This is getting like a "Spot-the-Difference" puzzle! Thanks, Tony.

I think "Spot-the-Similarities" would be more to the point, virtually everything is slightly different! Someone posted in this thread that the artwork that Roger How has is exactly what was used on the books - I'm afraid I disagree!

Her rough sketches are very nicely done. Obviously the originals are finished off better but she was a good illustrator.

Thanks for popping them up, Tony. It's nice to be able to see both the rough and the original for the books.

Yes, it is interesting to see the progression of a picture.

Mary Gernat's final artwork for Rilloby Fair cropped up on eBay some years ago; I'm still kicking myself for not bidding higher than the measly £20 I tabled.

http://postimg.org/gallery/p75fb2h0/39fbe60c/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The seller commented that there were no signatures on either piece, so the illustrator for this edition of Six Bad Boys remains, alas, anonymous.

How much did it actually sell for Ian? I would certainly have bid on the Six Bad Boys artwork if I had seen it!

Tony Summerfield wrote:How much did it actually sell for Ian? I would certainly have bid on the Six Bad Boys artwork if I had seen it!

I think Ian is referring to the paperback cover artwork for The Six Bad Boys, which isn't credited...

I realise that, Rob, that was what I was referring to as well after checking on Ian's link!

Is that artwork Mary Gernat? I like it, but to me it doesn't look like her style. It looks like the same illustrator as Those Dreadful Children paperback cover and The Children At Green Meadows etc. Just wondering who it was, as it was hinted that it was Mary Gernat but I'm not convinced!

Here's another link to a little more info about Mary Gernat:

Mary Gernat
Mary Gernat was probably one of the most prolific cover artists of the 1960s, and her sketchy, energetic style is probably familiar to nearly every child who bought a paperback book in the 1960s. The range of titles she provided covers for was wide: from Enid Blyton’s St Clare’s, Mallory Towers and The Mystery of... series through countryside stories like Monica Edwards to Malcolm Saville’s adventures. It’s probably fair to say she is better known as a cover artist than as an illustrator, although she did illustrate many children’s books: as illustrator of Sheila McCullagh’s Pirate and other early reader series, her illustrations were probably an intrinsic part of many children’s early reading efforts.

She had a very distinctive, sketchy style, which was well suited to situations full of action. I am particularly fond of her cover for the 1960s Armada printing of I Carried The Horn, which I think wonderfully captures the awful tension of the moment. Mary Gernat was good at capturing that moment, if not always so good at anatomical accuracy!

http://booksandmud.blogspot.co.uk/2009/ ... ernat.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Merged with an older topic.

There is a nice two page article about Mary Gernat in the September issue of Best of British magazine:

http://www.bestofbritishmag.co.uk/current-issue" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I've read the article and it has a short piece by Mary Gernat's son Roger How on growing up in the 1960s-70s as part of a large and adventurous family with Blyton-like exploring, boating etc at Milford-on-Sea in Hampshire. Apparently MG used to call on her children at short notice to come and pose for a particular picture she was creating, which makes me wonder if we can see any hints of MG's children in the iconic illustrations which she did for certain of Enid's covers (the Five Find Outers in particular). Possibly mainly Larry and Pip, as there were four boys and one younger girl? Ditto possible influence on her Monica Edwards and Pullein-Thompson sisters/ Gillian Baxter pony book covers. The Gernat house was by a stream and 200 yards from the sea and had a tree-house, so possibly bits of the Milford beach might have crept into her illustrations?
Apparently Mary Gernat only met Enid once. There is no mention of MG's later house (from c. 1969) in Lymington, which was about 50 yards from my parents', but possibly this was cut: unless the 'stream' refers to this period as there is a stream there.