Figure 1.--.

There is a great deal of fashion information in literature. As it is literature and not actual history, the comments on clothing have to be taken with caution. Authors vary as to how accurately they write about fashion and other historical cultural matters used to flesh out their plots and characters. Of course the most reliable fashion references are those in contemprary works. There are various types of literature of interest to HBC. We note useful information in both novels and children literature. Of special interest to HBC is the large number of boy characters in British literature. Of course one helpful aspect of many books are the often fascinating literature.

Fashion Information

There is a great deal of fashion information in literature. As it is literature and not actual history, the comments on clothing have to be taken with caution. Authors vary as to how accurately they write about fashion and other historical cultural matters used to flesh out their plots and characters. Of course the most reliable fashion references are those in contemprary works.

Types of Literature

There are various types of literature of interest to HBC. We note useful information in both novels and children literature.

Novels

There is interesting fashion information in Scottish novels. We have many sill unanswered questions about Scottish boys clothes and are hopeful that some Scottish novels will provide us some inights. There are useful refrence to fashion in novels for the simple reason that fashion is important to people. Novels are all about descriing the human condition. Thus novelists have to address what is important to people. Of course a major part of any novel is developing the character of the key people in the novel. Of course many people express their character in the clothes they choose. In other instances clothes are determined by the circumstances in which they find themselves.

Biographies

There is also a great deal of fashion information in biographies and autobiographies. This information tends to be highly reliable. We have archieved this infomation in the biography section of HBC. We do not yet, however, have a separate Scottish biograohy section.

Children's literature

While we have a great deal of information on English children'sliterature, we so far have collected very little on Scottish children's literature.

Boy Characters

Of special interest to HBC is the large number of boy characters in British literature. Many famous liteary characters are boys. A few novels are set around their boyhood experiences. Some of the first known boyhood literary characters are English, but there are also a few Scottish boys.

Illustrators

Of course one helpful aspect of many books are the often fascinating illustrations. A very important part of any children' books are the illustrations. Many of us adults can remember missing the declining use of illustrations in books as we grew up. There are many fine English illustrators who added emensely to the books that they illustrated. HBC has collected quite a bit of information on illustrators who have drawn images of children over the years. We know of many English illustraors, but so fr no Scottish illustrators.

Created: July 30, 2003
Last updated: July 30, 2003