The Enid Blyton Society

Not many seem fond of Joseph Abbey's illustrations.



Mary Gernat's illustration of the same scene.


Charles Stewart 1963 & Mary Gernat 1966 depicting the same scene from Spiteful Letters.


Let's not forget Peter Archer who did the covers for the two books shown above amongst many others,but did not provide the internal illustrations for these two.

Just to shake things up a little further on the illustrator front we have:


1966 Armada, illustrations by Lilian Buchanan, cover by Mary Gernat


1969 Dragon, illustrations by Jenny Chapple, cover by Mary Gernat

I hold a hope that one day the cave may include the Charles Stewart and the Mary Gernat Find Outer illustrations.
If not,maybe it's a project for someone else..

Ian Regan's Armada illustrations can be seen here:
http://seriesbookart.co.uk/blyton/index.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Interesting, Pete - yes - the Mary Gernat illustration on the bus is much more lively, even though of course, the bus is more modern. I much prefer it. I have always liked Mary Gernat's illustrations - but of course my absolute favourite is Lilian Buchanan if I had to pick just one. She has a lightness of touch, rather like Gernat, and depicts the characters just as I imagine them.

One paperback illustrator I absolutely hate is Jenny Chapple. Her illustrations remind me of something a 7 year old would do!! For me, she started 'the rot' and marked the deterioration of illustrations - along with Jolyne Knox.

Rob Houghton wrote: One paperback illustrator I absolutely hate is Jenny Chapple. Her illustrations remind me of something a 7 year old would do!! For me, she started 'the rot' and marked the deterioration of illustrations - along with Jolyne Knox.

I would have thought Joseph Abbey was surely the first of the worst...

I've always liked Peter Archer's illustrations, he did many for the early Armada books and his characters look like real people. Of the hardback illustrators Lilian Buchanan is my favourite.

I can't say that any of the Find-Outers' illustrators enhance the stories very much for me. I don't remember taking much notice of them when I read the books as a child, although I still recall the way I jumped when I saw the Pantomime Cat illustration for the first time.

COMPARISON

1.1961 Methuen Cover & internals by (left) Lilian Buchanan & 2.1969 Dragon,illustrations (right) Jenny Chapple,cover by Mary Gernat



Has Joseph Abbey got any competition?



"Quick Fatty,the man's coming back!!"



So chums,there you have a comparison between Lilian Buchanan & Rob's all time fave Jenny Chapple..
Opinions/thoughts welcome.

I wonder why Jenny Chappel decided to make her characters all look so UGLY?!

How did she get the commission? Do we know any more about her? Did she illustrate any book covers?

wiki:
The children's books of Enid Blyton were illustrated by a large number of artists, ranging from figures known for other work to humbler commercial artists, who in some cases were anonymous. Since the Blyton texts mainly used very simple language, the work of the illustrators was an important part of the appeal of many of the works.

Interesting quote, Pete! I agree that for me as a child the illustrations were definitely an important part of the appeal. In fact I think most children 'judge a book by its cover'.

Jenny Chapple didn't 'knowingly' illustrate any Blyton covers as far as I'm aware...but more recently her illustrations do appear on the front of books, coloured in by the publishers - I've only ever seen them on eBay though -Mystery of the Vanished Prince (Dean 2013)has a Jenny Chapple cover. Most of the other Dean books have Mary Gernat or Treyer Evans illustrations on the cover, so Jenny wasn't used very often!!

I think that some of the Methuen/Dean/Egmont books (Find-Outers, St Clare's and Malory Towers) are not in the Cave as they were not sold as individual books, bur simply released in a boxed edition, but I have certainly seen single secondhand copies for sale.

Thanks Tony.

I wonder if the Dean versions are still unabridged/unedited? I know they appeared to be up until the mid 1990's.

I have just been checking out Amazon and it looks as if they were all done. I have the first six in the Cave which came out in 2009 (as a boxed set), but I hadn't seen any of the later ones which must have come out a year or two later.

I know I've seen them in bundles of about 5 or 6 books in places like 'The Works' - but not lately.

Very interesting comments Rob & Tony.Thank you.
I did not think Jenny Chapple did any covers.
The one you highlighted is quite poor really in my opinion Rob.
Perhaps good enough for an internal illustration,but not the main cover of a book!

I like Jenny Chapple's illustrations for Malory Towers - but from the examples above her ones for the FFO are not nearly so good!