The Enid Blyton Society

For me, it would be Stuart Tresilian, Dorothy Wheeler, Grace Lodge, Eileen Soper and Gilbert Dunlop for his front cover artwork (I just love the atmospheric front cover for The Rubadub Mystery!) They're all quite different, but they all capture the magic of Enid's books perfectly, in my opinion. I really like them all. It is interesting to see other people's choices, too.

Ooh yes, and Courtenay has just reminded me of the brilliant Horace Knowles!! His illustrations were absolutely perfect for The Land of Far Beyond. His dark and haunting style fascinating.

My favourites are Betty Maxey & Eileen Soper equally.

Then I'm probably equally fond of the rest of my pack:
Stuart Tresilian,Derek Lucas,Treyer Evans,Basil Blackwell & Gilbert Dunlop.

I must say for a modern illustration (by my standards),1983, I think this cover by Georgina Hargreaves is absolutely beautiful...

Mine are Stuart Tresillian, Eileen Soper, Gilbert Dunlop (got to agree with Poppy and her comment about the cover of Rubadub), and Lilian Buchanan from the major series. I also like Bruno Kay but he only did three Secret Seven books unfortunately.

As Rubadub Mystery is probably my favourite EB book of all, I'm ashamed I missed Gilbert Dunlop off my list! I totally agree about the dust wrapper - one of the best - and I also like his wrapper for The Rilloby Fair Mystery.

I also agree about Georgina Hargreaves I have all the Faraway Tree and Wishing Chair 'deluxe' books she illustrated and they are beautiful. I'm her 'friend' on facebook and she seems a nice person too!

I love Georgina Hargreaves' illustrations for the deluxe Faraway Tree and Wishing-Chair books too - and the illustrations by Janet and Anne Grahame-Johnstone for the first deluxe Faraway Tree book.

Georgina Hargreaves gave a talk at the 2012 Enid Blyton Day and it was wonderfully entertaining and informative. It was great to meet her - she's really warm, friendly and enthusiastic.

A lovely illustration on that book I must say.

Anita Bensoussane wrote: Georgina Hargreaves gave a talk at the 2012 Enid Blyton Day and it was wonderfully entertaining and informative. It was great to meet her - she's really warm, friendly and enthusiastic.

Yes, that was a great day to see Georgina Hargreaves and listen to her talking. A great entertainer as you say, Anita. And great to see her doing her illustrations. I'm also really pleased that it was my art easel that she used for those demos. Let's hope some of her fantastic work has rubbed off and been passed onto me through the easel.

Unfortunately I missed Georgina's EB Day talk, but was lucky enough to see the great Robert Tyndal drawing Noddy!

Do you mean you weren't at that Day, Robert, or you were late getting there, or were in to loo!

LOL! No - I didn't go - the last EB Day I went to was 2009.

Anita wrote

Georgina Hargreaves gave a talk at the 2012 Enid Blyton Day and it was wonderfully entertaining and informative. It was great to meet her - she's really warm, friendly and enthusiastic.

I would heartedly agree with that. Izzy has a couple of her ad-hoc illustrations she mad on the day - such a talented lady.

What a lot of superb illustrators have been unleashed on her books - if you pushed me I would put Stuart Tresilian right at the top of the tree. To see his original illustrations from The Sea of Adventure at one of the Enid Blyton Days was absolutely unforgettable.

I remember that as well. He was definitely number one in the illustrator pantheon.