The Enid Blyton Society

I have already posted this in Questions, Comments and Suggestions...silly me! Had I looked a little further I would have seen this forum!



I thought members would be interested to know that there is to a retrospective exhibition of Gilbert Dunlop's work in the Roseangle Gallery (Dundee Art Society) Dundee from 27th October - 3rd November.

Gilbert (sadly deceased), a friend of the family, was a really lovely gentleman and took great pride in telling others that he had illustrated many of Enid Blyton's books such as the Ring o Bells Mystery and the Rubadub Mystery. I was delighted as a small child to receive many of the books he illustrated.
He was very accomplished and maybe not as well recognised for his work as he should have been.

Anyway, I am unsure if there will be any of Gilbert's Enid Blyton illustrations on show however, if you are in the area I would urge you to take a look at his excellent work.

I don't know too many details of the exhibition as yet, however if I can help anyone with further information, please don't hesitate to contact me.

That's so cool - I wish I had a "connection" to Enid like that! There have been some great artists from the Dundee area, including illustrators - wasn't W Lindsay Cable from there as well? I wonder if it helped that Valentine/DCT were such prolific publishers back then. I love Gilbert Dunlop's Enid work - I think he caught the Barney Mystery atmosphere beautifully! (I grew up on later paperbacks, more's the pity, but everything about his illustrations feels "right").

Hi Kitty

My dad was an illustrator with DCs and I think that was how he met Gilbert. They both worked with/for Thomson's. He was a lovely gentle man in the truest sense and his work was really special.
I remember being taken to his house when I was a wee girl and him signing some of the Blyton books for me.
He had a snowy white beard and drove a funky, putty-coloured VW Beetle!
Anyway...yes...I did feel I had an, albeit indirect, line with Enid Blyton...cool!

Will report back on the exhibition after the Private View on 26th Oct.

His daughter is to be there so will pass on you good wishes.

bridie

btw...I was/am lucky enough to still have artists from both DCs and Valentine's as family members and friends!!!

I am always looking for articles on 'main series' Blyton illustrators for the Journal - I don't know if Gilbert Dunlop's daughter would be prepared to do a short piece on her father, but it would be fantastic if she would.

Although most Blyton enthusiasts are aware that Gilbert Dunlop illustrated a number of Blyton books - the Barney series, The Mystery That Never Was and of course the reprint of The Boy Next Door, what is not so widely known is that he also illustrated The Secret Seven Adventure in the serialised version in the Sunday Graphic, which came out before the book as it was started in December 1949. When the book was published a year later, the illustrator was George Brook. Below are a couple of illustrations from the Sunday Graphic.

They are lovely Tony. I've not seen them before.

Bridie, will look forward to hearing about the exhibition.

I love the illustrations by Gilbert Dunlop in The Boy Next Door. Thanks for the pictures, Tony.

Dear All

Just returned from the Gilbert Dunlop Exhibition and what a lovely evening it was.
The art work, company and canapes were excellent.
There was much of Gilbert's excellent Christmas card artwork available to buy along with many watercolours. There was also a display of several of his book covers (not for sale) including the Rilloby Fair Mystery etc.
What will interest you most though will be an original letter from Enid Blyton dated 27th April 1951 praising Gilbert for the latest cover he had done however it isn't made clear which cover it is though. The letter does say that she considered Gilbert's cover for the Rilloby Fair Mystery as amongst the best covers of her books.
It was great to see the handwritten letter.

I am pleased to say that there was an excellent turnout for the opening with a lovely happy relaxed atmosphere and several red dots by the time I left.
His wife, daughter and grand-daughter were all there and it was smashing to have a good chat with them all.

The Courier (Dundee daily paper) had a great feature on Gilbert and the exhibition today and I understand that there is to be another wee piece tomorrow too.

Pity you all couldn't have been there to see it.

Do contact me if I can help with any info re the exhibition.

Thanks for the detailed write-up, Bridie. I'm glad the opening evening of the exhibition went well. The book cover mentioned in the letter might have been the cover for The Ring O' Bells Mystery or The Boy Next Door. I've just consulted Tony Summerfield's Illustrated Bibliograhpy and found that The Ring O' Bells Mystery was published in October 1951 while The Boy Next Door was reprinted in the same month and year with fresh illustrations by Gilbert Dunlop. I agree with Enid Blyton that Dunlop's jacket design for The Rilloby Fair Mystery is particularly attractive. I also like the one for The Rubadub Mystery.

By the way, I've deleted the posts on this topic that appeared under "Questions, Comments and Suggestions." They were the same as the first few posts in this thread, except for an additional comment by Lucky Star which said that he liked Gilbert Dunlop's illustrations in the Barney books and would like to hear more about the exhibition.

Anita

Gilbert dunlop is probably one of my favourite EB illustrators. I agree with Enid too: love Rilloby Fair cover.

The Barney covers are great. As good as Rilloby Fair is my own favourite is The Rubadub Mystery. Its very atmospheric with the kids running past the old inn with it sold fashioned swing sign lit by the torch beam.

By the way I think his cover for Ragamuffin is very reminiscent of some of Eileen Soper's Famous Five covers.

Slightly off topic, but Barney related, I have just had a phone call from someone who now lives in Anyon Cook's cottage in Polperro and he was trying to find out what illustrating she did for Enid Blyton, as that was what she was best known for. I believe this is the only illustrating that she did for EB and this poses the question why - particularly as Gilbert Dunlop did the final book in the series.

I have to admit that before this phone call I had no idea whether Anyon Cook was a he or a she even!!

So, was The Rat-a-Tat Mystery (1956)the only Enid Blyton book to be illustrated by Anyon Cook, then, or is it possible that she also illustrated some uncredited short stories?

Yes, it is a puzzle that Anyon Cook was responsible for illustrating the fifth book in a series of six titles, when the other five were all illustrated by Gilbert Dunlop. I don't know whether Bridie is able to shed any light on that?

Anita

The implication was that Anyon Cook had done quite a bit of illustrating for Enid, but this is certainly the only book, so anything else must be short stories. If this is the case then it must be some of the uncredited illustrations in Enid Blyton's Magazine - I wish I was better at identifying uncredited illustrators!

One can only assume that Gilbert Dunlop was unavailable for Rat-a-Tat - prolonged holiday, illness or something similar, but we don't know if Anyon Cook was approached by Enid or Collins. Perhaps she worked for Collins, who knows!

I'd always presumed Anyon Cook was a man! You learn something every day!

Must admit I've always found 'Rat-a-tat mystery' cover illustration to be far inferior to the Dunlop covers. I was never very surprised that Anyon Cook didnt illustrait anything else for Enid. Those figures on the front of Rat-a-tat are awful: all out of proportion with strange stiff arms and legs. The inside illustrations arent quite so bad, but I do think its a shame that the series has this one odd design in the middle of all the Dunlop ones.

Anyon Cook's style would have been more suited to Faraway Tree or The Wishing Chair than the mystery books.