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| Round the Year Stories: Winter dustjacket |
Do you know where this illustration is from I wonder? I borrowed a copy of the little book by Blyton in which it featured, (along with several other impressive colour pieces) very briefly several years ago, and scanned this, but it’s got a tartan pattern all over it - which I don’t understand. I should like to have a decent scan of it if I could find out where it was published.
That pattern, I think the pattern he mentions is "moiré" but don't ask me to explain it. I've just noticed if I do NOT 'descreen' when scanning, this occurs. Anyway back to the issue at hand. Ron's reference to Enid Blyton threw me. But I have confirmed the image was from Round the Year Stories: Autumn which I've shared already but that prompted me to finish this series of books off.
The fact that the author Maribel Edwin, being of Scottish origin, had her book reviewed in the Montrose, Arbroath and Brechin review; and Forfar and Kincardineshire advertiser. (24 November 1939) comes as no surprise:
Stories of animals encountered during the winter are to be found in "ROUND THE YEAR STORIES: THE WINTER BOOK" (2/6), by Maribel Edwin, daughter of the late Professor Arthur Thomson, of Aberdeen. The delightful nature drawings are the work of Raymond Sheppard
and the Library World of 1940 liked it too:
This completes the " Round the Year " series and deals with the months of December, January and February, pointing out the particular beauties of Nature at this time of the year. In the short Stories of Eels, Deer, Cats, Foxes, Salmon, Mice, Birds, etc., young children will learn much of the Wild Life of this Country during the Winter. There are many illustrations in black and white, and four coloured plates, and the book is printed in good bold type.
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| Round the Year Stories: Winter Frontis. Tabby cat |
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| Round the Year Stories: Winter p.15 An eel catches a frog |
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| Round the Year Stories: Winter p.21 Four fallow deer in woods - one fallen |
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| Round the Year Stories: Winter p.22 Fallow deer in woodland |
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| Round the Year Stories: Winter p.29 Mistle-thrush and magpie |
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| Round the Year Stories: Winter p.35 Tabby cat chasing a mouse |
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| Round the Year Stories: Winter p.43 Robin flies from horse's nose-bag |
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| Round the Year Stories: Winter p.47 Red squirrel drops a cone |
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| Round the Year Stories: Winter p.49 Fox terrier chases squirrel |
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| Round the Year Stories: Winter p.55 Great tit lands on milk bottle |
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| Round the Year Stories: Winter p.63 Fox chased by two dogs in snow |
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| Round the Year Stories: Winter p.69 Dunnock on branch |
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| Round the Year Stories: Winter p.77 Seven young salmon and adult salmon |
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| Round the Year Stories: Winter p.78 Salmon leaps a waterfall |
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| Round the Year Stories: Winter p.85 Terrier and badger fighting |
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| Round the Year Stories: Winter p.91 One rabbit separates from the group as weasel appears |
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| Round the Year Stories: Winter p.99 Mouse sits up in light from window |
There are some gorgeous colour and black and white illustrations there. Some of them have come up for auction over the years, and I've captured the auctioneers' photos to share here
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| Page 22 |
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| Page 47 |
Notice how bright the colours are here compared to my scans of the published versions. The next one was of "Rattle" the dog fighting Brock the badger - note the spelling mistake on the back of the artwork.
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| Page 85 |
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| Reverse of page 85 artwork |
Christine Sheppard has the proof copies of two pages which I've included here
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| Proof of page 15 |
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| Proof of page 91 |
Some of the illustrations from the series of four books were reprinted in:
Read and Remember (Edited by Richard Wilson B. A. D.Litt., Nelson, 1940) which showed colour illustrations of (frontispiece) the woodpecker in colour, labelled "The Bird who Laughs" (- see Summer), the black and white image of the woodpecker (p.53 - see Summer) and finally the squirrel dropping a fir cone. The book - like the one below - is a school reader and contains prose, science articles, poetry and history all in large sprint simple language.
Then in Things New and Old (Richard Wilson & John Harvard-Watts, [1945], (Book of Delight No. 5) Thomas Nelson we see on page 80 "a heron in flight" in colour (see Autumn); page 112 "Lapwings are called partial migrants" (see Spring) and finally on page 176 "A parent kingfisher feeding its young" (see Summer). The book is sub-titled "Reading in prose and poetry" and is a school reading book.
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| Read and Remember, pp.92-93 |
Finally Nelson got good value for money from Raymond Sheppard as all four seasons were reprinted by Nelson in 1950 in one volume with a new cover by Sheppard.
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| Round the Year Stories 1950 |
These books are relatively easy to purchase online with alternate covers. Finally to round up, Ron Tiner mentioned Enid Blyton and it appears he was right that she wrote "Round the year stories" illustrated by Kathleen Nixon. So that explains the confusion!
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| Enid Blyton book covers by K. Nixon |
Here's a link to all four Edwin versions:
- Round the Year Stories: Spring with a brief biography and bibliography
- Round the Year Stories: Summer with a further biography
- Round the Year Stories: Autumn
- Round the Year Stories: Winter
- Round the Year Stories (all four seasons)
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