Raymond Sheppard and Boy's Own Paper and Keith Horan

Boy's Own Paper May 1956, pp.26-27

Back in 2012, I showed the colour cover and inside illustration from Boy's Own Paper of May 1955. The story "The Red Fear" by Keith Horan was about how tigers and even elephants stand aside when packs of red dogs roam on the Deccan Plateau of southern India. 

Today I want to concentrate on the other three stories written by Keith Horan and illustrated by Sheppard. 

The April 1957 issue of Boy's Own Paper has "Terror of the Air"; May 1956 we have "The Masked Terror", January 1958 the story "Guardian of the Water-Gate" and in the issue dated June 1958 we sadly have not only Sheppard's last work for Boy's Own Paper but also a tribute to him in the story "The Monarch of Silver Pool".  

The first "The Masked Terror" (see above illustration) has some superb writing, engaging the reader with horror, whilst teaching subversively about nature:

Nearly two inches in length, it had a long, pointed body, ringed and armoured and ending in a sort of spike. lts thorax was also armoured and from it protruded six legs.  The back of its head consisted mostly of two black, staring globes of eyes, and the front, where its face and mouth should have been, was covered by a smooth, featureless mask split down the middle and reaching down to its breast. This mask, a combination of the Inquisition and the Klu-KIux-Klan, gave the monster a ghastly look of blank, mysterious horror.

Such terrors are Horan's description of the hunting skills and the insatiable hunger of the dragonfly larva!

Boy's Own Paper April 1957, p.26

The second is called "Terror of the air" and again is a tale of a dragonfly, but this time in the Himalayas. Again a voracious eater who eats things larger than itself!

Boy's Own Paper January 1958, p.18

"Guardian of the Water-gate" (January 1958)  is about a family of muskrat and the attack by a mink, who apparently cannot hold their breath as long as a muskrat. In the final battle depicted above, the muskrat father kills the attacking mink. Again the writing is tense, descriptive without being gruesome. 

Boy's Own Paper June 1958, p.18-19

Lastly we have "The Monarch of the Silver Pool" - who is a twenty inch long trout. We follow his adventures as a fingerling being caught by a fisherman who wisely puts the little trout back. we then read about a boy tickling the trout until a Bailiff comes along. Finally, grown up and as a 'monarch', an otter comes along with four webbed feet and a strong tail and an agility that finally leads to the Monarch's demise. 

On Monday the 21 April 1958, Raymond Sheppard passed away. Jack Cox, the Editor of Boy's Own Paper at the time, wrote the above tribute (with a few minor questionable facts).  Nevertheless it looks as if he must have known Sheppard, for this is quite affectionate and the only tribute I have so far seen in the magazine.

Getting back to Horan, he has two stories in Young Elizabethan that I know of ("Anek's Tapek "mentioned here) which are illustrated by Sheppard and after extensive searching in bibliographies and on the net, I have drawn a blank beyond this. There are various Horans in genealogical databases and the Times has a note of the engagement and wedding of "Pamela Horan only daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Horan, late 43rd Light Infantry (Oxford & Buckinghamshire) and Mrs Guy Rickard of Liphook, Hants."  BUT I don't know if this is him.

If anyone knows more about Horan (what this a pseudonym?) and any details of his life - and why he wrote no books under that name! - please do get in touch.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

     Horan, Keith (fl. 1940s-1950s)

        * Men, Meal, and Memories, (ar) Blackwood’s Magazine May 1951, as by “Won-Tolla”
        * Fun and Game, (ss) Blackwood’s Magazine September 1951, as by “Won-Tolla”
        * Pictures in the Fire, (ss) Blackwood’s Magazine November 1951, as by “Won-Tolla”
        * The Letter, (ss) Britannia and Eve December 1951
        * Escape, (ss) Argosy (UK) April 1952
        * Stand By—Maternity Case!, (ss) John Bull December 5 1953
        * Kubosko, (ss) The Boy’s Own Paper June 1954
        *[Resurgam, The World's News, 20 Nov 1954]?
        * The Red Fear, (ss) The Boy’s Own Paper May 1955
        * My Friend Bunda, (ss) The Boy’s Own Paper August 1955
        * Death in the grass, The Boy's Own Paper, September 1955
        * The Masked Terror, (ss) The Boy’s Own Paper May 1956
        * Terror of the Air, (ss) The Boy’s Own Paper April 1957
        * Anek's Tapek by Keith Horan Young Elizabethan June 1957
        * Forests of the night, Young Elizabethan, January 1958
        * Guardian of the water-gate, The Boy’s Own Paper, January 1958
        * The Monarch of Silver Pool, The Boy’s Own Paper, June 1958
        * White Fury, (ss) The Boy’s Own Paper February 1961

Thanks to the invaluable FictionMags Index and my own added research

Other than this, he remains a very big mystery which is a shame as I really enjoyed reading his short stories of nature "in tooth and claw"!

Raymond Sheppard and Round the Year Stories: Autumn

Round the Year Stories: Autumn - cover

We have covered Spring and Summer and today we look at Autumn! The first article included a biography but a very thin one. So let's rectify that here:

Maribel Thomson was born 23 April 1895, in Aberdeen and she was indeed the daughter of Sir John Arthur Thomson and Lady Margaret R Thomson. She married Charles Frank Edwin, 11 years her senior, (born 27 February 1884?) and they settled in Surrey after marrying in St. John the Evangelist, Blackheath in the summer of 1921 (when she was 26 years old). Charles' father was also Charles Frank born in Worcester. Charles (junior) was born in Guildford Surrey and his speciality later in life was electrical engineering - not surprising he was practical, as his father was a watchmaker. They were living at "Sunrays", Milton Avenue, Westcott, Dorking in 1952 according to the Electoral Register, - there was auction of contents of that house in 1950 so perhaps we have a date range for the move there. I suspect Maribel died at the Garth Nursing Home, Tower Hill Road, Dorking, Surrey, on 25 September 1985 which would make her 90 years old. If I've got the right Maribel, probate was £139,077.

Anyway let's look at Raymond Sheppard's images drawn for this book.

Round the Year: Autumn, p.15
"Down came the dagger-bill in a flash" 
Heron attacking underbelly of a rat

Round the Year: Autumn, p.23
"He landed on the one spot that was rather like home to him"
Skylark on ground

Round the Year: Autumn, p.29
"Over and over rolled the two little animals"
Two shrews fighting

Round the Year: Autumn, p.37
"There was a terrific clash and rattle as the two pairs of antlers meet" 
Two stags do battle

Round the Year: Autumn, p.41
"The leader of the herd"  - A stag bellows

Round the Year: Autumn, p.45
"They flew swiftly and steadily away towards Africa"
Swallows flying

Round the Year: Autumn, p.51
"Lintie began to beat himself against the netting"
A linnet on wire mesh

Round the Year: Autumn, p.59
"Down shot Seep, followed closely by his enemy"
A redwing pinned down by a hawk

Round the Year: Autumn, p.65
"There was no fear of starving in this place" 
An otter climbs on bank with fish

Round the Year: Autumn, p.67
"Gyppo followed the trout wherever it went" 
Otter chasing trout

Round the Year: Autumn, p.75
"Whiskers had leapt into the darkness of the hold"
A brown rat leaping

Round the Year: Autumn, p.81
"He all but collided with a swallow" 
A swallow crashes into a wren

Round the Year: Autumn, p.89
"Buff twisted the tip of his tail round a twig"
A dormouse climbing foliage

Round the Year: Autumn, p.95
"Away went Bunny as fast as his legs would carry him" 
A rabbit flees from a stoat

Round the Year: Autumn, p.97
"Black-Tip sprang at the crow- and he hung on"
A stoat grabs a crow in flight while a rabbit watches

Round the Year: Autumn, p.103
"Tawny was at once set upon by a mob of indignant starlings, tits and sparrows"
Starling, tit and sparrow attack a tawny owl

Round the Year: Autumn, Frontispiece
"Franky pushed himself off and flapped slowly away"
Grey heron takes flight

 In an earlier article on this series, I showed some proof printings and how they differed so much from what was printed. Today I can show you the Frontispiece illustration above, so you can compare them. This was  for sale a while ago and I captured the image from the auctioneer's site.

The grey heron flying

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)

 

Raymond Sheppard and Way for a Sailor

Way for a Sailor - Cover by Raymond Sheppard

 Peter Dawlish, the pseudonym of James Lennox Kerr (1 July 1899 – 11 March 1963), was a Scottish socialist author whose fame rested on his sea stories for young boys. He also used the pseudonym Gavin Douglas for his adult works with his last work found being published close to his death. Some of the "Dauntless" series were reprinted by publisher John Goodchild (of Wendover) in the Eighties with new titles..

It appears Dr. Stephen Bigger is the champion of Kerr's stories as he has blogged about the writer and also started the Wikipedia page. If you search the afore-mentioned blog for Lennox Kerr or Dawlish you'll see many entries. You can also access his e-print (PDF) of 8 pages on University of Worcester's site including two photos of the author and a bibliography.

Way for a sailor - Frontispiece
showing the harbour where Ronald starts his new life

I'm concentrating, of course on Raymond Sheppard whose sole work for 'Dawlish' was Way for a Sailor.  The blurb on the dustjacket reads:

Young Ronald McKay ran and fought and shouted as a small boy in the back streets of a Scottish industrial town—a natural leader, who on the strength of one highly coloured sea story, picked up by chance, becomes obsessed with a passion for the sea that he has never seen, and ships that he has only dreamt about. Way for a Sailor is a story of determination. It closes with Ronald about to go to sea as a ship's boy, for a summer holiday apprenticeship on a Scottish coast¬ing vessel; and by the time that we reach the last page, we have shared the boy's passionate longing for the sea, his stratagems to earn enough money to buy a share in a leaky old rowing boat, his conflict with his father and mother, and the whole bewildering, exciting business of growing up with one overriding ambition—to be a sailor.
Peter Dawlish has a distinguished name among writers of sea stories for boys, and much of his own boyhood has gone into Way for a Sailor. There is an urgency and conviction in this latest book, which carries the reader with it : it will command the interest of any boy who has ever thought of going to sea.
For other books by Peter Dawlish see back flap and back of jacket
Ages 12 and up Price (in U.K. only) 9s 6d net

Christine Sheppard still has the two bromides - proof copies of the illustrations from this book. My photos of them are crude and show them out of order compared to the published version:

I love the image of the frontispiece above showing the steep decline to the harbour. I'd love to know if it's a real place. I thought Robin Hood's Bay in Yorkshire a steep drop, but this image gives me vertigo! Note also the many details Sheppard has drawn - to the hree seagulls on the roof. I have to say the row-boat in the harbour looks to be wrong in size to me.

Way for a sailor - p.1
Ronald & friends enact battles

Way for a sailor - p.21
Ronald visits a terrifying place - the Library!

Way for a sailor - p.39
Ronald meets Mr Paterson - and his boat for £1!

Way for a sailor - p. 57
Ronald works hard to earn the £1

Way for a sailor - p. 87
Ronald, his dad and Mr Paterson meet

Way for a sailor - p. 105
Ronald & Mr. Paterson go out to collect flotsam

Way for a sailor - p.118
Ronald shows where everyone must sit in his boat

Way for a sailor - p.139
Ronald runs away from the town to sea

Way for a sailor - p.146
Ronald hides and gets a lift to the coast

Way for a sailor - p.168
Ronald makes new friends on board the schooner

Way for a sailor - p.186
A dare goes wrong for Ronald

Way for a sailor - p.201
Ronald's new 'friend' hides him in the dirty hold

I found a review of the book - children's books had few places to be reviewed! - in the Boy's Own Paper of February 1956 (p.31) which gives a good account of the story, including the beginning which soon gets forgotten as we follow the child version of the Commodore!

Boy's Own Paper Feb 196, p.31

Raymond Sheppard and Small British Mammals poster

Small British Mammals poster

Small British Mammals is plate #27 in a series of school posters I had not seen before. Previously I've shown Two Years in the Infant School (Box 1 Topics 1-63) by Enid Blyton and also Macmillan's Teaching in Practice for Infant Schools (Projects and pictures).

The mammals portrayed are: weasel, stoat and water vole in the first row; long tailed field mouse, dormouse, shrew, in the second row; harvest mouse, hedgehog, and mole in the third and finally the badger, otter, and hare. The poster measures 13.5" wide by 14" tall.

The only reference to this I could find was an old eBay sale mentioning a second black and white poster of "Goldfish and Queensland Salmon" - the latter appears odd to me for a UK school! The seller ran the headline  they were part of a set of 142 posters, which appears too big to me for any classroom purchase as others are in the 50s and 60s.

If I get any further information, I shall amend this entry.

Raymond Sheppard and the Christmas Crib

 We've looked at the two series at either side of Christmas 1957 which appeared in the children's comic Swift (from the Hulton Eagle stable) before. Today is the right time to wish all my readers a very MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

If you have some time on your hands you might like to reproduce the 6 part Christmas Crib - as published in Swift from 9 November 1957 to 14 December 1957 issues. Please excuse the colours being a bit off as I didn't scan these and don't own the comics. But I have added two photos I took of cuttings I've seen, so you can see how the colours should be!

and the two photos:

On the second of November 1957, "Animals and their young" ended, we then get the crib above until 14 December, followed by "Christmas dinner for the birds" and the robin Christmas card. In the new year, on 4 January 1958, the "Birds and their nests" series started.