The Enid Blyton Society

Posted: **18 Jan 2015, 17:16**

marygernat wrote:Hi there, My name is Roger How and my mum was Mary Gernat. She was an illustrator for Enid Blyton throughout the '60s and early '70s. She was contracted to Armada and Atlantic publishers. She would receive a job to do with a vague brief, which she would then do and send off to the publishers. They would then either accept it as is or return it with suggestions as to what needed to be changed. usually so there was enough room left for the wording. Mum did nearly always the jacket covers rather than the insides.Myself and my three brothers were always being asked to pull on a rope or pretend toclimb a tree as we were her subjects.When the publishers were happy with a cover they always returned the artwork , with margin notes, and with the final printed book cover. my mum safety clipped them together where they went into a cupboard and forgotten.I am in the process of scanning them all and intend to print them using high quality pigment based inks onto cotton based Bockingford paper. I then intend to sell them through a website, still in the making, On each print would be the original artwork along side the final bookcover, in either A4 or A3.
The idea is that they would make lovely unique gifts to fans of Enid Blyton. Bearing in mind that she illustrated literaly dozens and dozens books, there will be quite a choice including, Famous Five, the Pony books, mallory towers, St. Clares, the Mystery books and many others...............thanks for reading......roger

http://www.janebadgerbooks.co.uk/illust ... ernat.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

My favourite cover by your Mother is the one on the left:

It happens to be one of my favourite Enid Blyton stories too.

I know lots of our more mature members may possibly prefer the original hard-backed 1954 cover by Treyer Evans,but for my generation (born 1967) your Mother's cover captured the essence of the book perfectly for me and my younger brother Mike.

I own both versions of the book and to own a print of the original artwork for the paperback version would be exciting if it was financially within my reach!!

Best Wishes

Pete

Posted: **18 Jan 2015, 18:43**

Good idea to start a dedicated thread, Pete! Welcome to the forums, Roger.

I love Mary Gernat's cover for The Mystery of Tally-Ho Cottage too. One of my favourite internal pictures by her is the full-page illustration at the beginning of The Mystery of the Burnt Cottage, which has a portrait of each of the Find-Outers (and Dog).

Our thrice-yearly Enid Blyton Society Journal features a range of articles, Roger, and we have sometimes had articles on illustrators like Eileen Soper, Grace Lodge, Stuart Tresilian, Betty Maxey, etc. I don't know whether you'd be willing to write something about your mother, but it would be fascinating to learn more about her life and work.

Posted: **18 Jan 2015, 18:44**

I have quite a few dragon paperbacks, so I'm familiar with Mary Gernat's illustrations. Some of them have text illustrations by her and the cover is by Peter Archer.
(For example, my copy of "Mystery of the Missing Necklace").
I read the paperback versions of the Mystery books so I am more used to her work than the original illustrators.

Posted: **18 Jan 2015, 18:56**

I don't have any of Enid's books illustrated by Mary Gernat but the covers I've seen are quite attractive. I, too, would like to read more about her, if Roger could be persuaded.

Posted: **18 Jan 2015, 19:08**

You've definitely come to the right place if you're looking for fans of your mothers work Roger. Funnily enough the book I'm currently reading has a cover illustrated by Mary Gernat, "The Secret Mountain":

Although my favourite would probably be "The Ring O' Bells Mystery":

I wonder if it would be too much trouble to ask you to list the books your mother illustrated and provided covers for. Although the wonderful "Cave Of Books" on this very website, is pretty comprehensive there are occasional gaps even in Tony's encyclopaedic knowledge and it would be fabulous if you could help plug a few of them.

For example, I see you mention 'The Famous Five' as being illustrated by Mary Gernat, and there are a number of editions without attributed artists, so it would be very exciting if we can put names to faces as it were. (although of course "The Famous Five" were never published by Armada and your mother seemed to work exclusively for them).

Also as Anita says it would be lovely to see your mother recognised with a write up in the Journal, either composed by yourself or another society member with your co-operation.

Nonetheless, you can add me to your list of customers if, as Pete says, your pictures are within my price range.

Posted: **18 Jan 2015, 20:04**

I have several books, illustrated by your Mother, Roger, and I can only echo the previous comments here, praising Mary Gernat's designs and front covers of Enid Blyton's books. She seems to capture each scene with perfection and amazing accuracy, with vivid, appealing and colourful illustrations. My favourites range from the atmospheric and mystical scene on the front cover of The Secret of Moon-Castle (Armada, 1966), the bright and colourful Six Bad Boys design (Lutherworth Press, 1951) to (already mentioned) The Ring O'Bells Mystery and The Rat-a-Tat Mystery (Armada). They are all a great alternative to the original illustrations which are so avidly desired. Personally, I'm aways content to curl up with a good, Armada edition, with their vibrant and interesting illustrations. I would also be interested in learning more about your Mother and her life creating artwork for Enid Blyton's work. It would indeed make a great Journal article!!

Posted: **18 Jan 2015, 22:41**

I have lots of paperback books with cover illustrations by your mother, as I grew up in the 1960s and 1970s - I loved them, and they are among my favourites. It would be great to know more about her.

Posted: **18 Jan 2015, 22:49**

Welcome from me too, Roger!

From a quick look in the online Cave of Books (here: http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/five-find-outers.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;), I'm interested to see that your mother did the internal illustrations for the first seven Find-Outers books, and then most of the covers for the successive ones. I too would be glad to know more about her and see some more of her artwork!

Posted: **19 Jan 2015, 11:00**

Have we mentioned the St. Clare's and Malory Towers books yet? Mary Gernat did some eye-catching covers for those too (for Armada, Dragon and Methuen). One of my favourites is this amusing illustration for Claudine at St. Clare's:

Earlier Mary Gernat had done a different cover, very atmospheric, for the same book:

Posted: **19 Jan 2015, 11:11**

I have a copy of the second book, you posted a picture of, Anita: and as you said, it is a very atmospheric design and I think it captures the sense of excitement of the moment, perfectly. The first example is new to me: I don't think I have seen it before, but I love that scene in Claudine at St Clares! It is a hilarious situation, and again I think Mary Gernat interprets it beautifully, and the character's expressions are very comical!

Posted: **19 Jan 2015, 12:38**

I just clicked on the Jane Badger Books link again (in Pete's post). Last time I was so busy looking at the attractive covers of the horse and pony books that I didn't read the introduction at the top. Reading it now, I was interested to learn that Mary Gernat met Enid Blyton "but she was not enamoured by her, and found her an 'odd person.'"

It's great to see the photo of Mary Gernat too, taken around 1956.

Quite a few of my childhood Enid Blyton books feature covers and/or internal drawings by Mary Gernat, and I very much admire the energy and drama of her work.

Posted: **19 Jan 2015, 13:25**

Very interesting, Roger, and how lovely to have your mother's name as your username. That was good of you to start a new thread devoted to Mary, Pete. I replied under your original post, but thought it better to appear here. Maybe these posts could be merged?

Thanks for posting, Roger.

One of my favourites is this amusing illustration for Claudine at St. Clare's:

I was at school in the 50s, and navy blue was the choice of colour for under garments! Let's hope somebody doesn't use it as an avatar....

Posted: **19 Jan 2015, 22:58**

Moonraker wrote:
One of my favourites is this amusing illustration for Claudine at St. Clare's:
I was at school in the 50s, and navy blue was the choice of colour for under garments! Let's hope somebody doesn't use it as an avatar....

How do you know what colour knickers girls wore in the 1950s, Nigel?!

Posted: **19 Jan 2015, 23:28**

lizarfau wrote:
Moonraker wrote:
I was at school in the 50s, and navy blue was the choice of colour for under garments! Let's hope somebody doesn't use it as an avatar....
How do you know what colour knickers girls wore in the 1950s, Nigel?!

Posted: **20 Jan 2015, 00:22**

I thought he was referring to his own!

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