The Cherrys by Will Scott

[Anita Bensoussane]

Hopefully it was only a temporary glitch then.

I know what you mean about "Cherrys"!

[Shinglepringle]

Those of you who enjoy The Cherrys may like to know that there seems to be a new website about Will Scott that looks quite interesting - http://www.willscottart.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. It mentions a forthcoming publication about him which also features on one of its covers a preliminary mock-up by Will Scott of a Cherry book dust jacket. Obviously, as all Cherry fans will know, Lilian Buchanan eventually became the series illustrator.

[Eddie Muir]

I'm sure Aurélien will be interested in this website but, as he's such a big fan, I expect he already knows about it.

[Lenoir]

Thanks, that is interesting. I look forward to more developments on the site.

[Aurélien]

New to me. Most interesting.

'Aurélien Arkadiusz'

[Lenoir]

I had another look at the site. Some interesting historical information and photos there!

Plenty of Cherrys books up for sale on ebay, by the way. But look at the prices! “The Cherrys and the Blue Balloon” is going for £299.99 and that’s not the most expensive one listed.
I remember my local town library had that one in the early '70s. Nowadays, libraries have book and CD sales and raffles to raise extra cash to buy books. If only they had held on to their Cherrys books!

edit. my 1234th post!

[Fiona1986]

I'm lucky to have one Cherrys that was my mum's, and I got another free (well I paid for postage) from Cherie in The Netherlands.

[Aurélien]

I have all 14 Cherrys books only because I bought them whilst they were still in-print, feeling a right berk 'cos by then I was already out in the working world.

I did this because the unusual faithfulness of the illustrations and maps to the text in the first few Cherrys titles really grabbed me. (This at a time when children's book dustjackets and other illustrations sometimes contradicted the text instead of helping readers to follow it.)

Now, I'm glad that I did buy them!

'Aurélien Arkadiusz'

[Tony Summerfield]

What absolutely ridiculous prices being asked for the Cherrys books on ebay - they are all ex-library books too!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_odkw= ... &_from=R40" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Eddie Muir]

What ridiculous prices indeed, Tony! Since Aurélien made me aware of this series, I have searched second-hand bookshops and charity shops in the hope of finding copies of the books at reasonable prices. Sadlly, all to no avail! So it seems that if you really want copies, you're going to have to pay the silly ebay prices.

[Fiona1986]

If you look at the completed listings http://www.ebay.co.uk/csc/Books-Comics- ... te=1&rt=nc" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; you'll see that wo have sold recently one at £62.99 and the other at £22.49.

The unsold books are all priced at nearly £100 or more, I wonder why

[Tony Summerfield]

Someone paying £62.99 for The Cherrys and the Pringles without a dustwrapper is pretty stupid as it is one of the easier books to obtain. For some reason the first four books are much easier to buy than the rest and the dustwrapper is one of the nicest things about these books.

[Katharine]

I don't think I've ever come across these books, either when I was at school, or in secondhand book shops since. I had to smile at the title of one of them The Cherrys and the Pringles. My in-laws always serve Pringles crisps when having people round, although normally in the summer they have strawberries on offer instead of cherries. Sorry, I have a weird sense of humour.

[Aurélien]

Pringle just might be a Scots surname, Katharine.

Good luck with the search, Eddie. I haven't seen any of the Cherrys books at a NZ book-sale for more than 20 years though, as Tony once pointed out, often a number of the hideously-overpriced Cherrys titles listed for sale on the web are being offered by Kiwi second-hand booksellers.

Tony, the earlier books being reprinted several times may explain their greater availability. The relative rareness of overpriced second-hand copies of the later titles is probably down to there having been fewer printings - e.g. very likely only one printing of 'The Cherrys and the Blue Balloon'

'Aurélien Arkadiusz'

[Eddie Muir]

Thanks, Aurélien. I'll keep searching.

The only one of the series I have read is The Cherrys and the Pringles, which was kindly lent to me by Julie about three years ago.