Harmsen van der Beek - Noddy Gallery

[pete9012S]

People who have un-friended Noddy look away now!

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[Daisy]

That's very interesting Pete - thanks for the link.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Thanks, Pete. I do like the look of the "dice and counter" games that were printed in some of the books. They're colourful and packed with detail.

[Rob Houghton]

Thanks Pete! I have most of those books, but its good to see the artwork again. I think even if people dislike Noddy stories, they can still appreciate the gorgeously colourful illustrations created by Beek. I used to drink them in as a child!

We had The Big Noddy Book (the only Big Noddy book we had) and played the game in it many, many times.

[Daisy]

I think the illustrations are delightful.

[Kate Mary]

I can't say I'm much of a Noddy fan either, he made little impact on me as a child and I've never collected the books but Beek's illustrations are a delight.

[Stephen]

Another fan of Beek here. It's strange that many of us aren't all that keen on Noddy, because the illustrations were almost hypnotic. I used to like spotting Beek's signature on the bordered pictures. Of the books mentioned, I only had 'Here Comes Noddy Again', but the pictures jogged a few memories. It all came back to me from all those years ago that in the one showing the golliwogs falling into the sack, Mr Plod looks stern while Big-Ears looks almost smug!

[Rob Houghton]

As a child, Here Comes Noddy Again was my favourite Noddy book. It was exciting and mysterious, tragic and emotional - everything, in fact, that a good novel should be!! Although I was a big Noddy fan, even around the age of 10, when I was still trying to finish off my Noddy collection (I never did until I was in my 40's!) I did probably like the illustrations more than the stories in some cases, and still do!

[Courtenay]

Here Comes Noddy Again! was one of my favourites too. I had it when I was little — a relatively new copy, but before the infamous "new editions" came out, so it was uncensored. Funnily enough, I never once got the impression from it that the golliwogs being villains, in this instance, meant that I should regard human beings with black skin as malevolent and dangerous... I remember very well the excellent talk I went to a few years ago by David Rudd, who's written a book on why Enid remains so popular — he really stood up for her use of golliwogs and pointed out that replacing them with goblins, as the bowdlerised version does, is just silly, because goblins are always evil in Enid's world and Noddy looks like a fool for agreeing to take one in his car. Golliwogs, on the other hand, can be either good or bad but are usually good (and have been good up to that point in the Noddy stories), so that makes it a genuine shock for the reader when Noddy encounters a gang of bad ones.

I love Beek's illustrations in that book too, and all the ones he did before his untimely death. He really set the style and standard that was to continue through all the original Noddy books, and I doubt Noddy would have been nearly as successful all these years if it hadn't been for the quality and beauty of Beek's artwork in the first place. Thanks, Pete, for sharing the gallery!