The Enid Blyton Society

I have studied Peter Archer's style for several years now, and am even lucky enough to own one of his Armada Three Investigators cover paintings. Unfortunately, the vast majority of his work for Armada is unattributed, but thanks to his unique style, I am confident enough to list the following (incomplete) bibliography of his Enid Blyton covers:

CREDITED:
The Mystery of the Strange Bundle
The Mystery of Holly Lane
The Mystery of the Burnt Cottage
The Mystery of the Disappearing Cat
The Mystery of the Secret Room
The Mystery of the Hidden House
The Mystery of the Spiteful Letters
The Mystery of the Pantomime Cat
The Mystery of the Missing Necklace
The Mystery of the Invisible Thief
Circus of Adventure

UNATTRIBUTED:
The Adventurous Four
The Adventurous Four Again
Rockingdown Mystery
Rilloby Fair Mystery
Ring O Bells Mystery
Rubadub Mystery
Rat A Tat Mystery
Ragamuffin Mystery
The Secret Island (1970s Armada paperback)
The Secret of Spiggy Holes (1970s Armada paperback)
The Secret Mountain (1970s Armada paperback)
The Secret of Killimooin (1970s Armada paperback)
The Secret of Moon Castle (1970s Armada paperback)

The difference in style between the earlier and later covers is probably due to Archer trying to copy the style of Charles Stewart and / or Mary Gernat for the 1960s Armada and Dragon covers.

Ian.

Simply love the Disappearing Cat cover. It is so Alice in Wonderland!

Good stuff. Thanks, Ian. Peter Archer did the covers for some of the Malcolm Saville Armada paperbacks as well, didn't he?

Anita

Hey, those are good.

Great stuff. Many of those are the editions I had as a child. He certainly captured the spirit of the books very well.

Yes,I love Peter Archer's covers too.They take me right back to the time I was bought these books originally as a child..

I've always like this cover he did especially..

In February this year, I was lucky enough to spend the afternoon with Peter and his wife Karen.

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It was a resounding success: Peter and Karen were wonderful hosts, and put me at ease immediately.
I managed to record some of our conversation in the form of copious scrawled notes. Alas, he no longer has any of his original art due to a series of house moves in the intervening years.

Story about the war: his father was a train driver. In Croydon. Said that bombed houses were least affected at the base of the staircases, so the family would hide there during every raid. However, when the V1s starting landing, his father realized their utter and total destructive power, and built an air raid shelter in the garden. The VERY next raid, his father was at work and Peter and his sisters were playing in the shelter when a V1 struck the house (with his mother inside).

I was horrified at this point, thinking that the worst had occurred. But he went on to say that miraculously his sisters, scrabbling around in the ruins of the house, had managed to retrieve their mother, unscathed, save for a small wound over her eye.

I asked why he wasn’t evacuated; he said his father had sworn that, whatever happened, the family would all stay together.

Headmaster of his school was good at spotting pupils with burgeoning artistic talent, and had two lads enrolled in Wimbledon Art College. This was to Peter’s advantage, as the college came back to his school and cherry-picked him. He studied alongside Raymond Briggs (most famous for ‘The Snowman’). He still sends Ray Christmas cards.

The Rubadub Mystery: his style, also did back cover logo, commented on the look of fear on Barney’s face. I asked if the spray from the water hitting the rocks was hard to look right, he said, no, it’s actually quite straightforward.

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For the Hardy Boys and other series he found photos of appropriate lads, and used them as basis for rest of his covers. Didn't use models, and relied upon good training to be able to reproduce life-like poses, stances, etc. Skim-read EVERY book to find scenes to illustrate. Editors had little or no input in this regard.

Never met any other artists (such as Roger Hall); offered critique of Hall's frontispiece for The Haunted Fort!!!! Only liased through a young woman for Collins/Armada; also met one of the sons of William Collins.

Thanks for that, Ian. What a marvellous story about the V1 rocket.

Thanks, Ian. It's great to hear that your meeting with Peter Archer and his wife was a resounding success - and to learn more about an artist whose work is admired by so many.

Most interesting, Ian. Good to see you back!