Antiques Roadshow - Mary Gernat Illustrations

[IceMaiden]

I happened to have the Antiques Roadshow on tonight and caught a small bit that was rather interesting. A man on it had bought along his mother's work, illustrations from Armada paperbacks for which she was the artist, some of which were Enid Blyton books. There's a small snippet on them for anyone interested, it's around 12 minutes in.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m ... ne-house-2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Boatbuilder]

I also saw that when it was broadcast, IceMaiden.

[pete9012S]

Thank you IceMaiden. I was keenly looking out for this picture (above) which was included in the collection when it first came to light, but couldn't see it in the program.

It's a mystery to me this one!

[timv]

I only caught the end of the Antiques Roadshow piece, but the illustrations looked to me like Mary Gernat's covers from the mid-1960s Armada and Dragon PB editions of Enid's work. I've got some of the St Clare's and Five Find Outers series (plus her some of her Monica Edwards and Pullein-Thompson sisters pony book editions) and the style is distinctive. I've never heard of the MG cover for a Dr Who book, but this illustration appears with others on Facebook at : 'https://en-gb.facebook.com/Mary Gernat'. I don't think that a MG cover edition of the Famous Five was published, and it's not in the Cave - was this idea abandoned?

Mary Gernat lived down the road from my parents in Milford on Sea in the mid-1960s and later near our former home in Lymington, and her local sketches come up occasionally in local shops. The Antiques Roadshow episode was recorded at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, not far away. I only caught a glimpse, but if the artist was referred to as the the man's mother he may have been Mary's son Roger How - who with his siblings posed for some of the Blyton and Monica Edwards/ Pullein Thompson covers done by MG. TThere's a chance that I may be using some MG covers for my Blyton book illustrations so I have dealt with the relevant copyright agent, but it depends entirely on what the editors want when arrangements are finally made.

[Rob Houghton]

Yes - it was Mary Gernat's son - who I think posted some of those cover illustrations of his mothers on here? Or maybe a link to a website that was offering some for sale? He also had the photograph of his mother and his siblings when he was a boy, and explained how he and his brothers and sisters often featured in the illustrations.

[Daisy]

I saw it too, and felt I had already seen it! Has the son been on TV before, showing the pictures we saw last night? Some of it did feel familiar.

[pete9012S]

Was it this thread Daisy?

Mary Gernat

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

https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/for ... marygernat" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Daisy]

Yes, I think so, Pete. I did look earlier for more on her from earlier posts but hadn't landed on this one!

[Rob Houghton]

yes, that was the thread I was thinking of.

[Tony Summerfield]

It has indeed been on television before and over the last two or three years it has been talked about as a wonderful new discovery that nobody knew about. Well not quite nobody because someone knew about all this artwork - me! About twenty-five years ago I spent an afternoon with Mary Gernat at her house in Lymington and she showed me numerous pieces of cover artwork which had been done for Armada and Dragon paperbacks. She was keen to stress that she didn't have any of the artwork actually used by the publishers as they kept it all, which was normal in those days. What she did have was all her roughs and she kindly sold me three of the Blyton covers.

Some of her roughs were not used on published books and that is certainly the case with the Famous Five cover and although I am not certain I don't think the Dr Who cover was ever used either.

So although Roger How knew nothing about this artwork until a few years ago, someone else was shown it all many years ago a year or two before Mary Gernat died.

[pete9012S]

One day, maybe one day, we will get an Enid Blyton story in the press or on TV that gets all the facts right..