Secret of the Old Mill

[IceMaiden]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Enid-Blyton- ... ect=mobile" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

£30 buy now or open to offers

[Rob Houghton]

Not bad, as it still has the spine covering (albeit a bit ripped) - which is often missing. I got mine for £19.00 but it didn't have any of the spine covering left unfortunately.

[pete9012S]

Thank you IceMaiden. I just love the depiction of Scamper on the rear cover:
(these high quality scans are from the cave)





This internal is lovely too. I know I keep saying it, but Eileen Soper really was an extremely talented illustrator!

[IceMaiden]

Yes she was, easily my favourite Blyton book illustrator. Unlike most of the others, I find her illustrations really do match the characters and settings not just as Enid describes them but also as I imagine them to be in my own mind, and for this reason I can connect with them far more than other illustrators.

[Rob Houghton]

I particularly like Eileen Soper's coloured illustrations, which show a delightful lightness of touch. I'm not convinced she was always as good as people believe, though - she had problems with hands, as I've mentioned before (especially in the Famous Five internals) and she often made her figures very broad shouldered and masculine. She rarely drew a convincing feminine women - most were square shouldered and muscular looking!

George's hand here is weird!




Anne's hand is strange too!



Mr Sticks odd looking hand...and arm!



Mrs Stick the body builder



Mind you, she did do an awful lot of Famous Five illustrations that were brilliant, too!

But I prefer her work for short story collections etc, and for The Secret of Kilimooin and More Adventures On Willow Farm, which seem less rushed and more accomplished.