Raymond Sheppard and Our House on Wheels

Our House on Wheels cover
An idyllic scene

I recently wrote up a brief life of Mary Dorothea Hillyard Kelly and introduced the book The Caravan Family. That book contains three books one of which I wish to cover today: Our House on Wheels.

This book is the thinnest of the three titles but has some lovely Raymond Sheppard illustrations. All three books and the compiled version do not have page numbers. The stories are:

1. Magic carpet
2. Really Off!
3. Another Caravan
4. To The Sea
5. The Cave Adventure
6. Friends

"Good News!"
Mum brings letter to the table and three children look excited

Our House on Wheels title page
The car drives the caravan downhill on a  country road

Dad tells the children the holiday is cancelled but...

Paul said, "it's going to be real magic carpet!"

Tony and Colin, the dog look out the window in excitement

"Really in the country"
The three children swim in a stream

"Getting lunch ready"
Mum hands a roast chicken to her daughter

Paul comes out from behind a tree and spies an old gypsy caravan

"Paul makes new friends"

"Paul in the “corn house”"

 "Another halt by the wayside"

"What a place to play"
Patsy waves to the boys as they pick flowers

"Oh, Mummie, we went in a cave”
Patsy waves from the rowing boat to her Mum on the cliff

Patsy and her brother go crabbing with nets

"Exploring the caves"
The children row the boat into a cave

"Through the big woods"
The car comes uphill through the woods

Original art - notice bright colours!

"A shelter from the storm"
The two boys climb a ladder to a hayloft

 “Have you ever been in an aeroplane?”
The kids and dog talk with their new friend in the hayloft

 “I'm off the world looking at a map!”
The two seater prop aeroplane flies high

Paul kneels on the rear seat and looks out rear window

Endpaper: "A happy halt"

Other titles in the series:

The Caravan Family containing:

• Our House on Wheels
  
• Our Camping Holiday
• Our Caravan
  

Raymond Sheppard and The Caravan Family by M. D. Hillyard

Our Caravan cover

Before Christmas 2022 three paintings came up for auction which I promised to write about. So here we go...

Blackie and Son Limited published "The Caravan Family" by M. D. Hillyard c. 1938. This date is not very certain and you'll see why shortly.

I love the British Library, who, when there is no obvious publication date, add the accession date. This, at least pins a book's publication date to the relevant decade, but sometimes it leads to 'errors' of a sort. The British Library states:

Our House on Wheels.[1937]
The Caravan Family.[1938]
Our Camping Holiday.[1938]
Our Caravan.[1940]

The Caravan Family is made up of the other three books listed above so did Hillyard write the total compilation in one go and Blackie split off three books and separately published them? Or did she write over a couple of years and then a compiled version was published of the three books as a large single book? I favour the latter and that means the date for Our Caravan is problematic. But I think we can safely deduce 1936 or 1937 based on those accession dates. 

I have listed all the writings I could find by the author in case others wish to search for her work. Interestingly I did not find her credited in any magazines of the period in which she wrote, but maybe this is because she was a children's author. I shall leave others to go further and add to the list.

Our Caravan title page

Mary Dorothea Kelly (neé Hillyard) was born on 2 April 1886 in Stoodleigh, Devon to Arthur Hillyard (born c. 1846 Southam, Warwick, a Clergyman - 31 May 1919) and Ellen Augusta Hillyard (born c. 1847 in Oakford, Devon, died 6 July 1919). Mary had a brother Temple George Hillyard (a year older than her)  and a younger sister Mildred Ellen Grace Hillyard. In 1901 three servants and a Governess were living with the household in the parsonage at Upton Pyne (which is north-west of Exeter), and ten years later the census shows they had four servants at the parsonage,with Mary and Mildred still at home. Mary was 25 at this point in 1911. 

The year 1919 must have been a year of upheavals. She married around July 1919 (the year her Mother and Father died) and in 1939 she is still married and listed as having "Private means"  and her husband's occupation states 'Clerk in Holy Orders'. They had a gardener and two servants in the Rectory, Tiverton, Devon.

Mary's husband was the Revd. Evelyn Maitland Kelly (4 Feb 1887 - Salcombe, Devon - 12 Jan 1954 (aged 66), Oakford, Devon). He was the son of Reverend Maitland Kelly and Elfrida Blanche Carey (you can read more on the family here) . He appears to have been a boarder at Kelly College in 1901 (is the name coincidence?) and an assistant School Master on the Isle of Wight in 1911. Eight years later he married Mary. They had at least one child, Paul M. H. Kelly (born 28 July 1924). 

I wondered whether there might be some evidence of another child as Mary's probate was sorted by Anthony Arthur Hillyard Kelly (Schoolmaster), this might also explain why she died as a widow of "Neathwood Christow Devon" yet ended her days in Guildford. Mary died on 12 September 1959 in Guildford but was buried in St Peter's Churchyard, Oakford, Devon with her husband the Revd. Evelyn Maitland Kelly. Ironically when her husband was vicar of Oakford, she was only 3 miles from her birthplace.  She left a legacy of £7434/16/6.

 M. D. HILLYARD BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Peggy's Giant (illustrations by 'Peggy') London: A. & C. Black, 1920. [Available here] 
• Peggy and the Giant's Aunt. (illustrations by 'Peggy') London: A. & C. Black, 1921.
• The Exciting Family (illustrations by Agnes and Dorathea Kovalevsky) London; Glasgow: Blackie & Son [1927] - (Credited as M.D.Hillyard and E. M. Kelly)
• "Gooseberry jam" in Hunt the slipper and other stories. London: T. Nelson & Sons, [1928]
  
• Mary Was Five. London: T. Nelson & Sons, [1937]
• Our House on Wheels. London; Glasgow: Blackie & Son, [1937]
• Our Camping Holiday. London; Glasgow: Blackie & Son, [1938]
• The Caravan Family. London; Glasgow: Blackie & Son, [1938]
• Martin's Little House. London: T. Nelson & Sons, [1939]
• Our Caravan. London; Glasgow: Blackie & Son, [1940]
• Minikin's Visit. (drawings by A. H. Watson) London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1953. - (Credited as M.D.Hillyard and E. M. Kelly)
• Minikin's New Home. (drawings by A. H. Watson.) London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1954.
• Minikin and her Friends. (drawings by A. H. Watson.) London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1955.
• Timothy, Minikin and all. (drawings by A. H. Watson.) London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1956.
• A Treat for Minikin. (drawings by A. H. Watson.) London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1958.

The paucity of images in this article is because I shall publish three more articles on the three books that make up The Caravan Family and the cover above is unique to the series (notice a chicken flees from the car as the latter comes over the bridge - with a church in the background) and I've included the title page for good measure. Here also is a listing of all the books with their story titles.

Story listing

Our House on Wheels, Our Camping Holiday, Our Caravan to follow soon

Raymond Sheppard and Round the Year Stories: Winter

 

Round the Year Stories: Winter dustjacket

Some years ago I got an email from the comic artist and book illustrator Ron Tiner. We shared an interest in Sheppard and also Frank Bellamy. He attached an image which I identified for him as originally being published in Round the Year Stories: Autumn. He wrote:

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.

Round the Year Stories: Winter Frontis.
Tabby cat

Round the Year Stories: Winter p.15
An eel catches a frog

Round the Year Stories: Winter p.21
Four fallow deer in woods - one fallen

Round the Year Stories: Winter p.22
Fallow deer in woodland

Round the Year Stories: Winter p.29
Mistle-thrush and magpie

Round the Year Stories: Winter p.35
Tabby cat chasing a mouse

Round the Year Stories: Winter p.43
Robin flies from horse's nose-bag

Round the Year Stories: Winter p.47
Red squirrel drops a cone

Round the Year Stories: Winter p.49
Fox terrier chases squirrel

Round the Year Stories: Winter p.55
Great tit lands on milk bottle

Round the Year Stories: Winter p.63
Fox chased by two dogs in snow

Round the Year Stories: Winter p.69
Dunnock on branch

Round the Year Stories: Winter p.77
Seven young salmon and adult salmon

Round the Year Stories: Winter p.78
Salmon leaps a waterfall

Round the Year Stories: Winter p.85
Terrier and badger fighting

Round the Year Stories: Winter p.91
One rabbit separates from the group as weasel appears

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

Page 22

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.

Page 85

Reverse of page 85 artwork

Christine Sheppard has the proof copies of two pages which I've included here

Proof of page 15

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.

 

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.

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!

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)