Raymond Sheppard 70 years ago - Lilliput 1955

Original art by Raymond Sheppard

I've shown quite a few works by Raymond Sheppard from Lilliput magazine.  As 2025 is slowly coming to an end, I wanted to show his illustrations from 70 years ago from Lilliput.

 The January edition contained a story by Sandy Sanderson called "Death in the tall grass" and concerns an attack by a water buffalo on men in 8 foot elephant grass in the Sudan. Despite my best efforts all I can tell you about Sandy Sanderson is he wrote quite a few stories in Lilliput (two of which were illustrated by Sheppard - and one by Frank Bellamy). He also wrote articles in Collier's, Cavalier and True magazines which might imply he was American. Unfortunately the surname 'Sanderson' often leads to the nickname 'Sandy'! However in Chris Harte's - mostly - excellent "Lilliput Magazine: A history and bibliography" we have a single line in the author entry that tells us he was Harold Sanderson (1931-1993) -is this reference to the same man?

Lilliput January 1955, p.9

 

Lilliput January 1955, p.10

For the observant among you, you may have noticed that the colours change between the original art (at the top of this article) and the published version of page 9. This often happened and one wonders how the art editor at the time gave the commission - or did he not worry and merely substitute according to that month's prevalent colour?

Original art by Raymond Sheppard

The art at the top of the page is owned by me, and the reverse of the artwork shows Sheppard - at this point - was using "Fashion Plate Drawing Board" by Winsor and Newton.

Fashion Plate Drawing Board

In the February issue of 1955, Raymond Sheppard drew illustrations for Colin Willcock's "The snare of the fowler"

Lilliput February 1955, p.21

This is the opening page of the article and I've already shared the second spot illustration here - owned by Brain Marks where we see that the orange colour is again turned to blue! On page 63 of this issue of Lilliput Sheppard also drew a white whale!  

Lilliput February 1955, p.63

Moving into March 1955, Lilliput had an article, "Master of the Mountains" written by Malcolm Monteith with a lovely image of a fox drawn by Sheppard - unfortunately being chased by the hunting pack of dogs. But the background is all there in detail. Further in the article we have a spot illustration for the centre of the page of the hounds. 

Lilliput March 1955, p.33 "Master of the Mountains"

Lilliput March 1955, p.34

The original artwork shows some explanation of what went on with the colour changes mentioned above. 

Original art by Raymond Sheppard

"Weak yellow tone over background only" is what the bottom line states in pencil and looking at the published work above we can see it was finalised in VERY weak yellow!

Malcolm Monteith (1913-1995) wrote extensively for Lilliput on the subject of natural history but also on many other topics. Monteith's dates again come from Harte's book mentioned above but I couldn't find any more details. He also wrote 3 other tales which were illustrated by Sheppard. The first was in May 1955 "Stoop out of Heaven" about how peregrine falcons are used to capture grouse. 

Lilliput May 1955, p.49 "Stoop out of Heaven" (Original Art)

Monteith again writes for the July 1955 issue and I've shared the original art from Brian Marks here for "Trap in the tide". The article tells of the 'putcherman' capturing salmon. The next Monteith, is "The Harbourer", which appeared in August 1955. It tells the story of Ralph Slocombe, the harbourer to the Devon and Somerset Staghounds, whose"job is to find, through pure woodcraft and the knowledge absorbed in the thirty-six years he has worked for the Hunt, a warrantable stag for hounds next morning". The original art is still around, and shows a gorgeous stag jumping a fence. 

Lilliput August 1955, p. 43 "The harbourer"  (Original Art)

 Moving swiftly on to another 1955 Lilliput,in the April edition, Sheppard bravely tackles "Suicide on the Little Big Horn" by John Prebble. John Edward Curtis Prebble (1915-2001) wrote many books and articles/short stories and is most often quoted today as inspiring the screenplay for "Zulu", the 1964 film.  

 Sheppard drew a full page plus four B&W illustrations for the story - which garnered Prebble much criticism from Lilliput readers at the time. The following month's letter pages were full of noted inaccuracies! No-one criticised Sheppard's artwork though.

Lilliput April 1955, p. 16
"Suicide on the Little Big Horn"  (Original Art)

Lilliput April 1955, p. 17 
"Suicide on the Little Big Horn"  (Original Art)

Lilliput April 1955, p. 18
"Suicide on the Little Big Horn"  (Original Art)

Lilliput April 1955, p. 22
"Suicide on the Little Big Horn"  (Original Art)

Lilliput April 1955, p.23
"Suicide on the Little Big Horn"  (Original Art)

 If the image on page 18 looks odd to you, you can read more about the "Sun Dance" on Wikipedia

 In the July edition 1955, Lilliput had a small illustration accompanying a book review section (called "Animal Crackers") which you'd hardly recognise as Sheppard's work unless you knew the original art is in Christine Sheppard's possession - that's provenance for you! The book it accompanies is called Psychology of animals in zoos and circuses by Dr. H. Hediger and shows Flippy the dolphin whose talent is towing "a surfboard of bathing belle".

Lilliput July 1955, p.64 (Original Art)

The main illustrations by Sheppard in the July issue accompanies "The big bull" by Neil Ewing. I've shown the third - thanks again to Brian Marks - but here are the published and the original art for the other pair

Lilliput July 1955, p.41

Lilliput July 1955, p.41 (Original art)

Lilliput July 1955, p.42 (Original art)

Lilliput July 1955, p.42

I can't find anything about Neil Ewing in any of my usual sources and even WorldCat has nothing useful. This appears - even according to Chris Harte - to be the only article by Ewing. It's based in the Zambesi area and concerns the attack of an African buffalo. That's all I can say about that!

So, if I've calculated correctly this is the final item I have to show from Sheppard's Lilliput output from 1955

"Steer course 180" by N. J. Crisp was published in the December issue and tells the tale of Krane who kills a policeman and then hits a Flying Instructor to steal the latter's Auster. His lack of knowledge leads to him crash landing and being caught. 

Lilliput December 1955, p.45

 

Lilliput December 1955, p.47

Norman James Crisp (1923-2005) wrote many TV episodes of popular series in the 1960s plus many plays. His output in magazines were pretty good too running from at least 1955-1962, but these are the only images Sheppard drew for a Crisp story. 

Raymond Sheppard and Kent

Chilham, 1937

I have had a breakthrough! I wrote about three Kent views drawn in pen and ink by Raymond Sheppard and guessed they were from the 1930s. I put them in one article because I felt it was too much of a coincidence they were all from Kent. It appears I was not far wrong and I'm just glowing with pride. 

In the Maidstone Telegraph for 24 April 1937 (p13) in the bottom right hand corner, an advert appeared for Henley Tyres - or to give them their full name Henley's Tyre and Rubber Co.- who were a subsidiary company of W. T. Henleys Telegraph Works Co. Henley Tyres address in the adverts is 18-20-22, Christopher Street, [in Finsbury Square] London, EC2. But for our context here, their works were based in Gravesend. The Chilham image is the first of three (to my knowledge) prints which were offered by Henley Tyres. As they say in the advert:

CHILHAM near CANTERBURY

By Raymond Sheppard
Copies of this drawing on Superfine Cartridge paper and without advertising matter will be sent free on-request. 

Maidstone Telegraph 24 April 1937, p13

 The quality paper gives me a clue why some people have thought they own original art, but I can confirm from my copies they are not originals. The Maidstone Telegraph offered the same print again two weeks later.  

The second one offered on 22 May 1937 (and again on 5 June) was of EYNSFORD BRIDGE. 

Maidstone Telegraph 22 May 1937, p13

 Two weeks after the 5 June issue, the third was advertised. This time of "The Barn that was a Church" - which is clarified a little:

THE BARN THAT WAS A CHURCH
at Ruxley near Sidcup. Mentioned in Domesday Book. By Raymond Sheppard
Copies of this drawing on Superfine Cartridge paper and without advertising matter will be sent free on request.

Maidstone Telegraph 19 June 1937, p3

 

 So there we have it. I've shown a full page of the Maidstone Telegraph so you can see the adverts tucked in the corner. Note the header states "Kent Messenger" - which is the newspaper group's name even today. Willings Press Guide tells me that in 1937 the Kent Messenger and Maidstone Telegraph was founded in 1859 and various editions were issued - Kent Messenger and Ashford Examiner/ Canterbury Telegraph / Dover Telegraph / Gravesend Telegraph / Sevenoaks Telegraph.

Maidstone Telegraph 3 July 1937, p3

 

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This article is dedicated to my good friend David Slinn, who helped me a lot with images and information on my blogs and writing over the years. David passed away on Wednesday 22 October aged 88. His knowledge of the 1950s onwards in British comics came first hand. he worked for various comics - Eagle, Swift, Girl, Tiger, Zip etc. I'll miss his long emails with so many asides and sub-clauses, they made me concentrate like never before. he would have rejoiced with me at another Sheppard find being pinned down. I'll miss you David and thanks.  

Raymond Sheppard and Tarka The Otter in Newnes Pictorial Knowledge

Christine Sheppard's files of cuttings, and clippings of her father's work, included an interesting challenge for me. Christine believed her father had illustrated "Tarka the Otter" the famous book by Henry Williamson (1932) and possibly "Salar the Salmon" by the same author (1935), but my communications with both the Henry Williamson Society and the Charles Tunnicliffe Society yielded a blank. When I finally saw the latter title I could see again how much Tunnicliffe and Raymond Sheppard's works resembled one another - remember they illustrated The Old Man and the Sea together.

A reference to Tarka came up on the Bridgeman Art Library some years ago and stated the image appeared in Waverley's "Book of Knowledge". But I never found it there. However the current reference on Bridgeman states it appeared in Newnes Pictorial Knowledge which is correct!

After much digging around and following sales on eBay and other places I found the volumes, of the 10 volume set, in which Sheppard's work appeared.And wonderfully I didn't waste my money on 10 volumes for nothing! Allow me to share what I've discovered.

 I've written a full article on the set and their history on my other blog. In later articles I am writing about other artists I've tried to identify and credit throughout the set. But back to Raymond Sheppard. I have no way of knowing when a picture was produced by Sheppard or when it first saw print, as the publisher tended - quite reasonably in an encyclopedic set - to re-use pictures. The internal evidence for the set I now own shows this particular edition was published after May 1957, but again Sheppard (who died in 21 April 1958) may have drawn these items much earlier.  

Newnes Pictorial Knowledge Volume 6, page 401

Volume Six contents include "The world and its work – The story of some great industries" which includes among others "Agriculture – producing food from the land". The caption beneath the six images reads:

ANIMALS THAT GIVE US WOOL AND HAIR
The fine Merino Sheep (top, left) comes from Australia. It is really a Spanish Sheep, introduced into Australia from South Africa in 1797. On the right is an English Southdown Sheep. The Shepherd lives on the steppes or grasslands of central Asia, and below him are the dark Alpaca and white Llama of Peru. The silky hair of the Angora Goat from Asia Minor (bottom, left) gives us mohair, from which articles ranging from bootlaces to velvet are made, while to the right is the long-bearded Barbary Sheep of the semi-desert tracts of North Africa. [Emboldening mine]

Newnes Pictorial Knowledge Volume 7, page 251

In Volume Seven, the collection of articles are quite widespread (full listing here) but we are focussing on "Literature through the ages – Great books and their writers" and specifically "Notable nature Writers".  The caption below "Raiders in the Poultry Run" above states:

The illustration above depicts a well-remembered incident from "Wild Life in a Southern County" by Richard Jefferies. It depicts how thieving jackdaws visit the poultry run and steal food put down for the fowls. "Four or five jackdaws will perch on the post and rails," one may read, "intent on the tempting morsels; sitting with their heads a little to one side and peering over. Suddenly one thinks he sees an opportunity; Down he hops and takes a peck." 

The whole text of this incident is lovely, so here it is for your pleasure to see how Sheppard captured the author's words

The jackdaws, which—so soon as the rooks pack after nesting and fly in large flocks—are always with them, may be distinguished by their smaller size and the quicker beats of their wings, even when not uttering their well-known cry. Jackdaws will visit the hen-coops if not close to the house, and help themselves to the food meant for the fowls. Poultry are often kept in rickyards, a field or two distant from the homestead, and it is then amusing to watch the impudent attempts of the jackdaws at robbery. Four or five will perch on the post and rails, intent on the tempting morsels: sitting with their heads a little on one side and peering over. Suddenly one thinks he sees an opportunity. Down he hops, and takes a peck, but before he has hardly seized it a hen darts across, running at him with beak extended like lance in rest. Instantly he is up on the rail again, and the impetus of the hen's charge carries her right under him. Then, while her back is turned, down hops a second and helps himself freely. Out rushes another hen, and up goes the jackdaw. A pause ensues for a few minutes: presently a third black rascal dashes right into the midst of the fowls, picks up a morsel, and rises again before they can attack him. The way in which the jackdaw dodge the hens, though alighting among them, and as it were for the moment surrounded, is very clever; and it is laughable to see the cool impudence with which he perches again on the rail, and looks down demurely, not a whit abashed, on the feathered housewife he has just been doing his best
to rob. 

Newnes Pictorial Knowledge Volume 7, page 254

 And then a few pages later we see Sheppard's drawing of "Tarka The Otter"! I was so excited to have found this as it's one of many pieces I knew had been published but not where. Little things keep this old man happy!

The context is the following text which I thought worth reproducing:

Henry Williamson [born 1897]

Among those writers from Gilbert White to Richard Jefferies who have loved the English countryside and all its creatures, Henry Williamson will surely take a high place. His love of Nature, combined with his poet's imagination and his skill as a writer, enables him to bring to all who will read the charms of the moor and fen and meadow, and to follow him in the adventures over land and water of some creature of the wilds as in "Tarka the Otter."
Yet the actual writing of this book was done under many handicaps. Williamson himself has told us in "Devon Holiday" how he had difficulty in paying the small rent of his cottage in Devon. His wife was ill and during the day he did the housework and cooking then carried on with his writing in the kitchen "while the baby cried in the crook of my left arm." Much of the work was written after midnight and after the writing came revision. Not until he had completed the seventeenth version of "Tarka" was he satisfied.
It was the magic of this book that brought him fame in 1927; in the following year this story of Dartmoor and Exmoor was awarded the Hawthornden Prize for Literature.
Most of his earlier books were written around the country of the Two Rivers, the Taw and the Torridge in Devon, but he has also written a more practical book, "Story of a Norfolk Farm," published in 1941. Later publications of his include "The Phaisan Bird" [sic] (1948) and "Tales of Moorland and Estuary" (1953). 

 Obviously we now know that Williamson died in 1977 and this piece must have been written after 1953. After the afore-mentioned work he wrote four books in our time period (after 1953 and before 1957) but none in the 'rural' genre mentioned.

Volume Eight's contents range from the seas, heavens, human body and other topics. The one of special interest to us featured in a earlier blog article - but I've shown them here in order to keep things logical - I hope! The specific section in which these plates appeared is "Pastimes at home and out of doors" and the "Angler's Art".

Newnes Pictorial Knowledge Volume 8, page 264a

 

Newnes Pictorial Knowledge Volume 8, page 264b

Newnes Pictorial Knowledge Volume 8, page 264c

Newnes Pictorial Knowledge Volume 8, page 264d

Raymond Sheppard and Landscapes

 I enjoyed searching through the images last time, which Christine Sheppard kindly shared with me, so let's do it again. This time I'm concentrating on landscape watercolours.

 The first few, I suspect, are in France as Sheppard visited there and drew parts of Ardèche. If anyone recognises the places from these images, please do let me know.

Rocky outcrop with strong wind and men (ochre colours)

Rocky outcrops with village in valley (ink and wash)

Rocky outcrops with buildings (dark wash)

 The next batch are very English, in my opinion, showing fields with boundaries of fence posts and/or barbed wire plus some trees and a clearing. I love Sheppard's use of colour perspective - showing lighter colours at the back of the paintings. Living on the edge of the Fens I notice the hills in these images!

Field with barbed wire

Field with fence posts

Trees and clearing

 Then we have some more countryside scenes including what might be the woodland near to where he lived, Stanmore Common (another named place in other artwork). 

 

A lane leading to cliffs

Church tower in a rural setting

Misty woodland

A house in a woodland

Notice in the church scene above he has gone to the trouble of showing us the church yet covered it with the branches of a young sapling! But the woodland scenes really convey that soft light, dappled through the canopy. Gorgeous work.

Finally, for now, three studies that show a variety of methods. The first a watercolour wash; the second  a snow scene and lastly a study in orang - perhaps a sunset?

A park scene - but where?

An English snow scene called "Sunlit Distance, 1947"

Trees and lane - in orange

 

Raymond Sheppard sketches: Flora

 I'm sitting on a wealth of sketches and drawings on my computer which Christine Sheppard very kindly shared with me. Rather than look at my published collections of books, magazines etc., I thought this time I'd share some wonderful sketches of flora by Raymond Sheppard.

Less for me to write and more for you to see and adore!

Chinese Fountain Palm - (Livistona Chinensis)

Himalayan Dwarf Fishtail Palm (Wallichia Densiflora, Himalyas)

Asoka tree (Saraca Indica)

I did wonder with the illustrations above whether Sheppard was doing research for a publication so went looking at the obvious: Jim Corbett books. And in Man-Eaters of Kumaon we see a boar under - what looks to me to be - a Himalayan Dwarf Fishtail Palm, but I'm no horticulturist!

Man-Eaters of Kumaon, p.187

 There's one colour piece in the 'flora' folder which shows the Sabal Bermudana, or "Blackburnianum Bermuda" as Sheppard has it. I love the light touch, identifying colours, shapes and how the leaves join the trunk.

 Sabal Bermudana

 Then we move a bit closer to home

 

"Small evergreen weighted with snow"

"Tree trunk"

"Burnham Beeches"

"Beeches"

I spent a pleasurable hour scouring all my scanned images and couldn't find an evergreen laden with snow - most snow scenes being in polar regions. 

The pen and ink and watercolour of the tree trunk is a beautiful study of overlapping bark 

The beech tree studies are delightfully simple outlines with shadows giving them their grandiose bulk. As the Woodland Trust tells us about the site Burnham Beeches:

There has probably been woodland on the site since the end of the last ice age. One of the three Scheduled Ancient Monuments on the site shows inhabitation as early as the Iron Age. It is characterised by a mixture of ancient woodland, wood pasture, coppice, ponds and streams, grassland, mire and heathland. The most prominent features are the veteran Beech and Oak pollarded trees that provide a stable habitat for many rare and endangered deadwood species 

 I hope you enjoyed this article as much as I did in putting it together.