Figure 1.--We note some charming illustrations By Cicely Steed from an Enid Blyton book titled Down at the Farm . Unfortunately, like many of the Blyton illustrators, we have little information about her. The story is essentially about the young Bobby who has been ill in bed. The good doctor recommends to his mother for a swift recovery her son should have spell in the country. Published in Great Britain by Purnell and Sons. There is no publishing date but it seems to be from the late 50s or early 60s. Of note is the brown leather strap shoes.

Enid Blyton wrote so many stories and books over so long a period that it would have been virtually impossible for one person to have illustrated all of her works. There were in fact several illustrators that worked with her. It is probable that she worked with more illustrators than any other single writer. We also syspect that some of the illustrators were contracted by the publishers without any direct comtact with Blyton. We have few details about her relationship, if any, with these illustrators. One wonders why there were so many. Did she not get on with illustrators or did they not like working on her books. Many of her books, unfortunately do not even credit the illustrator. HBC is uncertain as to the extent, if any, that the illustrations were updated for modern readers or if they were redone for specific countries like America. Most of the illustrators used were not very well known as we have not yet succeeded in finding much information about them. Some illustrators did large numbers of books for Blyton while others had only a minor association with her.

Ernest Aris

Roland Greenand Ernest Aris illustrated Birds of Our Gardens, published by George Newnes Ltd., 1949. Fourth Edition. B/W photo frontispiece with several B/W photo plates throughout. Aris also illustrated The Book of Brownies which was published by George Newnes Ltd., . The King of Fairyland gave a party, but the three naughty brownies, Hop, Skip and Jump, weren't invited. So they were delighted when old witch Green-Eyes offered to help them get in without an invitation if they would pretend to be conjurers and do what she told them.

Maureen Bradley

Maureen Bradley, Lynn N Grundy, Sally Holmes, and Ken Stott illustrated The Bedtime Story Book published by Treasure Press in 1989 (reprint).

George Brook

I know little about George Brook. I do know that he illustrated some of the Secret Seven books. He illustrated some of the early Secret Seven books in the 1950s.

Rene Cloke

Rene Cloke illustrated Amelia Jane Again, published by Dean & Son Ltd 1969. Includes plenty of illustrations of one of the main characters

E. H. Davie

E. H. Davie illustrated The Adventurous Four published by Newnes in 1959 (9th Impression). Davie also illustrated Circus Days Again, published by Newnes in 1952 (5th edition).

Van Der Beek

Van Der Beek illustrated The Big Noddy Book, published by Sampson Low, Marston & Co., Ltd. AND The Richards Press Ltd., 1975. Reprint. Pictorial Cover. Pictorial endpapers. Golliwogs throughout.

Figure 3.--This is a Gilbert Dunlop illustration for "The Boy Next Door". Notice that the boy is wearing closed toe sandals without socks, a popular summer style in England.

Gilbert Dunlop

Gilbert Dunlop illustrated The Boy Next Door, published W.M. Collins Sons. The illustrations in the book focus more on the settings than the characters involved. Dunlop appears to have done even more book illustrations for Jane Shaw and her Susan books--a series about teenage girls and their adventures.

Janet and Anne Grahame Johnstone

One of the books from the "Magic Faraway Tree" series, The Enchanted Wood (Dean 1979) had beautiful illustrations by Janet and Anne Grahame Johnstone. Normally lesser known iillustrarors were used for Blyton's books and the illustrations were basic. The Johnstone sisters were a departure from thi approach.

Roland Green

Roland Greenand Ernest Aris illustrated Birds of Our Gardens, published by George Newnes Ltd., 1949. Fourth Edition. B/W photo frontispiece with several B/W photo plates throughout.

C. Holland

C. Holland illustrated The Children of Kidillion, published by Werner Laurie in 1952, second impression. Originally written under the pen name of Mary Pollock.

Marcia Lane Foster

Lynn N Grundy

Maureen Bradley, Lynn N Grundy, Sally Holmes, and Ken Stott illustrated The Bedtime Story Book published by Treasure Press in 1989 (reprint).

Georgina Hargreaves

Georgina Hargreaves illustrated Adventures of the Wishing Chair. We had thought that she allso illustrated The Enchanted Wood, 1988 reprint. She tells us, however, that the Johnstone sisters illustrated The Enchanted Wood, but did the next four in that series, gift books by Dean and Son. I also illustrated The Little Witch Dog and The Green Elf. [Hargreaves]

Sally Holmes

Maureen Bradley, Lynn N Grundy, Sally Holmes, and Ken Stott illustrated The Bedtime Story Book published by Treasure Press in 1989 (reprint).

Bruno Kay

Joyce A. Johnson

Joyce A. Johnson illustrated Come to the Circus, published by George Newnes Ltd., in 1950 (second edition). "Fenella had always been frightened of animals, and when she heard she was to go and live with her Uncle Ursie, who looked after the bears in Mr. Carl Crack's Circus, she felt rather miserable."

Jessie Land

Jessie Land illustrated The Adventurous Four Again, published in 1954 (2nd Australian Edition).

Grace Lodge

Grace Lodge illustrated Before I go to Sleep, published by Latimer House in 1950, fourth impression. Illustrated by Grace Lodge including a color plate. She also illustrated The Birthday Kitten, published by the Lutterworth Press in 1968 (2nd Impression). Color plate.

Derek Lucas

Derek Lucas illustrated some of the Secret Seven books in the 1970s. He attempted to update the clothing the children were wearing. The boys still had caps and blazers in some of the illustrations, but they were all wearing long trousers. Some boys still wore school sandals. I did not notice any sneakers or American innovations like baseball caps. We have few other details on Lucas' other illustrations at this time.

Kathleen Nixon

Kathleen Nixon illustrated The Animal Book, published by Newnes. The wrapper was by Ernest Aris.

Olive Openshaw

Olive Openshaw illustrated Enid Blyton's The Adventures of Scamp which was reprinted in 1954.

Harry Rountree

Harry Rountree illustrated The Children of Willow Farm (A Tale of Life on a Farm), published by Country Life, 1955 (9th Impression).

Burgess Sharrocks

Burgess Sharrocks appeared in many of the original editions of the Secret Seven. His drawings in the 1950s depict the children in traditional school attire, caps, blazers, jumpers, short pants, kneesocks, and school sandals. This was a reasonably accurate depiction of what boys at private English preparatory schools were wearing in the 1950s. Most state schools at the time did not have uniforms or were just beginning to adopt them. We have few other details on Lucas' other illustrations.

Eileen Soper

The original illustrator of the Famous Five series was Eileen Soper. Soper was another of the few well-known illustrators Blyton worked with. Through the first dozen books the children age in the illustrations in line with the passage of time through the stories: Julian from 12 to 18, Dick and George from 11 to 17, and Anne from 10 to 16. In the later stories they appear to be fixed at: J 15/16, D & G 14/15 and A 13/14. Later illustrations to modernize the appearance of the five now look hopelessly dated, with 1970s style flared trousers and androgynous kids. Also the artists are nowhere near as skilled as Miss Soper. Recent paperbacks have restored her illustrations but in a colored form.

Cicely Steed

We note some charming illustrations By Cicely Steed from an Enid Blyton book titled Down at the Farm . This is the only Blyton book we know of at this time. Unfortunately, like many of the Blyton illustrators, we have little information about her. We have noted many other books she illustrated, including some religous books by Betty Smith. The Down at the Farm story is essentially about the young Bobby who has been ill in bed. The good doctor recommends to his mother for a swift recovery her son should have spell in the country. Published in Great Britain by Purnell and Sons. There is no publishing date but it seems to be from the late 50s or early 60s. Of note is the brown leather strap shoes (for boys) worn with white ankle socks compared to the girls exclusively black leather strap shoes which don't have the middle leather strip. One HBC reader liked Steed's drawing style to Marcel Marlier who did illustrations of the same time. Marcel's illustrations show the children's demeanor and posture far more pointed and studied with the detail of their clothing more precise.

Ken Stott

Maureen Bradley, Lynn N Grundy, Sally Holmes, and Ken Stott illustrated The Bedtime Story Book published by Treasure Press in 1989 (reprint).

Sylvia Venus

Sylvia Venus illustrated Amelia Jane Again, published by Newnes in 1953. Many gorgeous pictures of golliwogs throughout.

Elsie Walker

Elsie Walker illustrated The Boy Who Came Back, published by Lutterworth Press in 1975 (3rd Impression) and The Boy with the Loaves and Fishes published by William Clowes & Sons, 19566, 1 color plate.

Dorothy M. Wheeler (19??-66)

Dorothy M. Wheeler rew many pictures for the Faraway Tree series of books and others. Wheeler did "comic strip" illustrations during the 1940s and 50s. She then did many illustrators for Enid Blyton’s books. Her last illustrations were for Blyton's The Ring O’Bells Mystery (1965).

Unknown Illustrator

A HBC reader writes, "I hope that you can help with the following. I have been trying without success to identify a particular Enid Blyton book llustrator. Based on your website, it appears that you have some knowledge of Blyton illustrators. I am therefore hoping that you might be able to identify the artist or suggest other avenues that I could explore in order to discover the illustrator's identity. The illustrator is uncredited and as the British publisher of these (paperback) children's books is no longer in existence, I have not been able to get any information from them. Tony Summerfield of the Enid Blyton Society also lists the illustrator as unknown. The only information I have is as follows. The titles, The Blue Story Book, The Yellow Story Book, The Green Story Book, were first published by DRAGON BOOKS (Atlantic Book Publishing Co.) in 1971. The titles, More Twenty-Minute Tales, Amelia Jane Again, Mr. Meddle's Mischief, were first published by DRAGON BOOKS (Mayflower Books) in 1972. If you are unable to help, I would be grateful if you could let me have an e-mail address for anyone who may be able to." [Michelle]

Sources

Hargreaves, Georgina. E-mail message, January 5, 2004.

Michelle, Niccola. E-mail message, November 23, 2005.

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Created: February 28, 2003
Last updated: 2:39 PM 11/25/2005