The Enid Blyton Society

Rob Houghton wrote:That's one of Aunt Betty's better illustrations!

You could have fooled me, Rob.

Well, when you look at it, the background is quite well filled in and both the characters depicted are drawn completely, apart of course from the hole at the back of Mrs Jones's skirt...

Could it be an air vent?

I'm going slightly off topic here, but when I saw the image from Five Get Into a Fix that Rob had added I thought it was about time that I started putting these Soper Magazine illustrations into the Cave. I went back to Chapter 1 and added a few, but then took a break and had a look at what lay ahead and I came to Puzzle for the Secret Seven. I remember Rob commenting at some stage that the illustration from a Secret Seven serial in the Magazine was far better than the ones in the book, so I took a further look. Some chapters had just one illustration and some didn't have any at all, but what struck me was that not only were none of the illustrations in the book, but that all the magazine ones were far better than anything in the book.



I felt that this was far too good for Burgess Sharrocks and wondered if it was possibly a different illustrator, but if it was him why did he take far more trouble with the Magazine illustrations than the book ones and why on earth weren't any of them used in the books! Any suggestions?

I agree that the illustration looks far too good for one of Burgess Sharrocks but looking at my hardback copies of the Secret Seven the nearest likeness I can find is by comparing the illustration that Tony has highlighted with the one on page 73 of Secret Seven Adventure. Peter has that same lock of hair hanging down over his forehead in both drawings but Adventure was illustrated by George Brook who had long departed the scene when Puzzle was published.

Thanks for posting the Secret Seven illustration, Tony - yes - I agree, and have long been puzzled by the fact that the Burgess Sharrocks illustrations seem much better in the magazines than in the books. I wonder why that was? Maybe he produced them one at a time for each issue of the magazine, and worked better that way? Its a pity they didn't reuse the illustrations from the magazines for the books!

I should have said that I am adding the illustrations to the book, not the individual magazines, so that eventually they can all be viewed in Further Illustrations together - along with the chapter headings showing exactly where the illustrations come from.

http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/book ... Into+a+Fix" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Still a work in progress!

Thanks for doing that, Tony! Its interesting to see the differences and similarities! Although I have all the magazines for 'Fix', the illustrations look much better after you've scanned them and cleaned them up. Much appreciated.

I really like the illustration where George is stalking off with Timmy. What a shame that wasn't in the book version!

I think that Aily in the last magazine picture where Dick is saying - "What's your name?" Looks just like gypsy girl Jo, in Fall Fall into Adventure.

Those further illustrations are great!
Thank you Tony.

It is interesting to compare the book illustrations with the magazine illustrations. Thanks, Tony!

Tony Summerfield wrote:...I came to Puzzle for the Secret Seven. I remember Rob commenting at some stage that the illustration from a Secret Seven serial in the Magazine was far better than the ones in the book, so I took a further look. Some chapters had just one illustration and some didn't have any at all, but what struck me was that not only were none of the illustrations in the book, but that all the magazine ones were far better than anything in the book.



I felt that this was far too good for Burgess Sharrocks and wondered if it was possibly a different illustrator, but if it was him why did he take far more trouble with the Magazine illustrations than the book ones and why on earth weren't any of them used in the books! Any suggestions?

That is strange! It certainly looks like Burgess Sharrocks' style (he has a distinctive way of drawing faces which I think we can see in the girl's face) but I've no idea why he would have taken more trouble with the magazine illustrations than the book ones. Magazines tend to be regarded as ephemeral so you'd think it would have been the other way round!

Maybe, as Rob suggested, the quantity of pictures required and the timescale of the magazine suited him better. Or maybe the pay from the magazine publisher (Evans Brothers) was better than the pay from the book publisher (Brockhampton Press) so he could justify spending more time on each magazine illustration!

I haven't had time to read Rob's write-up yet this week, or the scanned stories, but I look forward to doing so over the next few days.

Perhaps Burgess Sharrocks was irritated at having to illustrate the same stories twice and the magazine publishers wouldn't allow their illustrations to be used in the book. Good to see these extra pictures though, thank you.

I absolutely agree with Anita. Sharrocks' line drawing faces are very distinctive. Janet's face has the hallmark of Sharrocks' line drawings.

And it may be true that Sharrocks drew the illustrations in the magazines nicely so that he would be chosen to illustrate the books later. But when he got the job...