Raymond Sheppard and The Story of Heather

 

The Story of Heather dustjacket

 THE AUTHOR

May Wynne The Bookman (Feb 1909), p.235

Mabel Winifred Knowles (1 January 1875 – 29 November 1949)  wrote extensively for children, but also Detective and Science Fiction using her two nom-de-plumes: May Wynne and Lester Lurgan. Wikipedia has enough of an article to fascinate and tell us what an intriguing character she was. She was born in Streatham, and never married, leaving £6,070 11s. 7d in 1950 at probate - as a comparison, my parents bought a bungalow in 1964 for £3,000!

The British Library lists 229 books (with many editions)  including the 1899 "Life's Object: or, Some Thoughts for Young Girls" as her earliest book publication,and the last 1938 or 1939 - "The Lend-a-Hand Holiday" or "Schoolgirls' stories". However thanks to the wonderful FictionMags website we also know she wrote at least 158 short stories for magazines too! They go from 1907 ("The Escape: A Story of Red Hugh O’Donnell" in The Captain #105, December 1907) through to 1948 ("Pot Luck for Jessamy!", in Champion Book for Girls 1948).

But this wasn't her only work. Sally Mitchell (2004) tells us

[Mabel] was in charge of the St Luke's Mission Church in London's Victoria Docks and lived nearby at Tyne House, 93 Maplin Road. She died of heart failure at 124 Butchers Road, Victoria Docks, London, on 29 November 1949 while preparing to lead a mission service for women.

THE BOOK

An advert in the Children's Paper shows the 1/6d "The Story of Heather" was first scheduled for publication in June 1920 by Nelson in their interestingly titled series "Nelson's New Library for Boys, Girls and Children"!

From Bexhill-on-Sea Observer (16 November 1912 p.11) :

This is the story of a pony told by himself. How he was born on beautiful Exmoor, and witnessed the tragedy of a friend who was lost in a bog, and taken by the moor giants; how he was broken in and had a nice home; was stolen and experienced very hard times with gipsies; how he underwent cruel treatment by thoughtless children, and how at last he ran away and got back to his kind friends. 

This edition had colour illustrations by Dorothy Pope. In April 1938 we learn of a sequel: "Heather: The Second", again by Nelson but this being almost 20 years later priced at 3/6d and illustrated by the prolific children's artist Honor C.Appleton

THE ILLUSTRATIONS

The dustjacket image drawn by Raymond Sheppard is included as the Frontispiece in the version he illustrated. The Bookseller of the 16 September 1936 states the edition as:

The Bookseller  16 September 1936,p.20

So we know when Sheppard's version was released. Bearing in mind he was born in March 1913, this means he had this commission when he was 23 years old! I'm always wondering what his earliest published work was, and this is certainly a contender, but I know I'm chasing a rainbow here! Anyway to the pictures

Frontispiece " Our home was on Exmoor"

p.16 "I galloped away at Tricksie's side"

p.46 "One little girl gave me a  delicious morsel"

p.80 "He gave me a last vicious cut across the head"

p.106 "Sometimes they would chase me"

p.172 "In the meadow with Ned the donkey"

The black and white images are full of vitality but in an earlier style of Sheppard's, and show his command of animal studies already at that age. The pictures illustrating "Heather" show horses galloping together, a boy and a girl having a picnic being approached by Heather, the cruelty of a horse-handler to his pony pulling a trap and also boys who throw snowballs at the pony.  Why Sheppard didn't get to illustrate the sequel is unknown.

REFERENCE:

Sally Mitchell, (2004) "Knowles, Mabel Winifred [pseuds. May Wynne, Lester Lurgan] (1875–1949)" in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography [https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/58982]

Raymond Sheppard and Boy's Companion + Girl's Companion

Last time I shared two books which had the same (with one exception) illustrations by Raymond Sheppard. I stated

Boy's World published by Blackie in 1950 with a sub-title: a collective work by thirty writers was a successor to The Boy's Companion.

Today I want to share the content of two more books by Blackie starting with The Boy's Companion. Edited by B. Webster Smith (Centurions) it was first published in 1947, reprinted in 1948 and 1951 and a new edition created in 1956. One edition I've glanced at online shows the War Economy Standard stamp which ran until 1949 so I suspect this is the 1947 edition.

The editor seems to have penned a lot of the articles but "Dogs and Pets: their care and management" has been written by S. H. Benson.  In the section on cats, we see the first Sheppard illustration.

Boy's Companion p.433

"A dish of clean water should always be at hand" - a lovely image of a cat licking from a dish.

Boy's Companion p.434

A picture of a rabbit in a hutch

Boy's Companion p.435

"See how short they can cut the grass" - two guinea-pigs at work nibbling grass

Boy's Companion p.437

"My cage, a wooden one, the front covered with wire, was about 3ft. long, 2ft. deep, and 2ft. 6in. high" - a wall-mounted box with mesh on the front to house your budgies

Boy's Companion p.438

 "Teach it to stand on your finger" - something I often did with my first budgie, much to my Mother's annoyance!

Boy's Companion p.440

"Showing how to hold canary for cutting claws" something i never attempted

GIRL'S COMPANION Edited by Mary A Carson

First published in 1947 and then reprinted in 1948 and 1951. The new edition was produced as the Boy's Companion above, in 1956. Amazingly it was then reprinted each year from 1958 to 1961 to my knowledge.

The article "Dogs and Pets: their care and management" was written by S. H. Benson and under the heading "Cage Birds Budgerigars" the article actually starts to  change a little - not significantly just in layout. Sheppard's illustrations appear  on pages 561, 562, 563, 565, 566, 569 but here we have one extra image:

Girl's Companion, p.568
A Norwich canary

I didn't realise there were "Yorkshire, Norwich and Crest" canaries!

Raymond Sheppard and Boy's World + Girl's World

Boy's World published by Blackie in 1950 with a sub-title: A Collective Work by Thirty Writers was a successor to The Boy's Companion (more on that another day). It measures 7¾ in height and is 2 inches in thickness with 576 pages.

"Catching wild animals live" written by Gladys Davidson (F.Z.S.) runs from pages 294-310. She appears to have been born in Royal Leamington Spa, 1874 and died in 1962 in Torquay, aged 88 and produced c. 90 books on animals, nature and opera!

Boy's World p.297
Elephants being driven into the keddah

Boy's World p.307
Tapir

Boy's World p.309
 Lien Ho, the giant panda eating bamboo shoots

The first image shows five elephants being driven between two fences. The second shows a tapir grazing and the last a panda nibbling bamboo shoots. 

"Getting to know the birds" by G. D. Fisher (The Hut-Man of the BBC) writes from page 311 to 326. Gilbert Dempster Fisher (1906–1985) was a Scottish broadcaster, writer and naturalist who achieved prominence on BBC Scottish Radio as a naturalist under the persona of 'the Hut Man' as he settled down in a hut in the moors north of the village of Lochwinnoch in Renfrewshire. He published The Hut Man's Book in 1938, and it was re-published as a Puffin Story Book in 1950 and he appeared on BBC Children's TV too - as did Sheppard himself.

Boy's World p.312
 The Thrush family: Song-Thrush, Redwing, Fieldfare, Missel-Thrush

Boy's World p.319
 The bird will think it sees two people walking away

Boy's World p.321
 Some birds with long legs or long bills: Snipe, Redshank, Curlew, Heron

Boy's World p.320
 Black and white birds: Oyster-catcher, Wagtail and lapwing

Boy's World p.322
 The crow family: Raven, Rook, Jackdaw, and Crow

Some lovely bird illustrations by the master of bird drawing.

GIRL'S WORLD

Now interestingly I also own Girl's World with a slightly different sub-title: A Collective Work by More Than Thirty Writers.  But both the articles Sheppard illustrated appear here with one difference!

Girl's World p.346 - Elephants being driven into the keddah
Girl's World p.356 - Tapir
Girl's World p.358 - Lien Ho, the giant panda eating bamboo shoots
Girl's World p.361 - The Thrush family: Song-Thrush, Redwing, Fieldfare, Missel-Thrush
Girl's World p.368  -The bird will think it sees two people walking away
Girl's World p.369 - Black and white birds: Oyster-catcher, Wagtail and lapwing
Girl's World p.370 - Some birds with long legs or long bills: Snipe, Redshank, Curlew, Heron
Girl's World p.371 - The crow family: Raven, Rook, Jackdaw, and Crow

There's no need to reproduce the illustrations - except for that one mentioned.

Girl's World p.368
 The bird will think it sees two people walking away

I'm sure this is an amended illustration where Sheppard will have been asked to submit two images for use in both books! Did he get paid twice? I hope so

Raymond Sheppard and the Children's Book of Games, Puzzles and Pastimes

 

Facing page 33

An advert appeared in the book trade magazine "The Bookseller" in the 18 September 1954 issue, for three Odhams books: Victorian People by Asa Briggs, First Interval by Donald Wolfit and the one that interest me here, The Children's Book of Games, Puzzles and Pastimes. The advert states:

An established favourite still in heavy demand:- 

THE CHILDREN'S BOOK OF GAMES, PUZZLES AND PASTIMES 

Packed with hundreds of wonderful ideas and suggestions for putting the leisure hours of children from 7 to 14 years to pleasant, practical, instructive use. Exciting contents include indoor and outdoor games, hobbies and pastimes, quizzes, conjuring tricks, problems and riddles, etc. Contributions from 19 favourite authors. Ronald Lampitt, Raymond Sheppard, F.Z.S., and Norman Meredith, A.R.C.A., are among the 25 well-known artists who provide nine beautiful full-colour plates and over 200 black and white drawings. 202 pages. 8s. 6d. net. 

The first instance of the title I could find was in the British National Bibliography (1953) and then 11 June 1954 and the last published advert was 1965, so a good seller for Odhams. Now, I can't say whether the contents stayed the same. The code at the rear of my copy is S.458.5R.R. If anyone knows whether this helps date the book edition I'd be grateful for an email. As I have the dustjacket, the price unclipped states 11/6d (8/6d in 1954 advert)

Pages 28-29
The shell bearing group covers a vast range
from snails and slugs to
giant octopuses and squids

So let's look at Raymond Sheppard's contributions.

"Life on the seashore", written by William Aspden covered pages 22-32. It begins with a page of 7 seaweed types - not by Sheppard - followed by a drawing of children enjoying the seaside - drawn by the excellent Lilian Buchanan - and then two of jellyfish and anemones by, I presume A. W. Darnell as s/he is listed in the contents page. Across pages 28-29 we see the various sea creatures: Smallest British cuttlefish,  Periwinkle, Sea Slug, Octopus, Squid or Decapod, Octopus on its back to show location of its mouth.

Pages 30-31
Shells vary enormously in shape.
Look out for the dog winkle which emits
a purple-coloured fluid when disturbed

Sheppard shows us Auger, Dog Winkle, Cowry, Mussel, Limpet, Common Whelk, Common starfish, and a Brittle starfish.

Page 32
You will notice that a lobster is blue and purple
in colour when found in a rock pool
and he only becomes bright red when cooked

The next page sits on the reverse of Sheppard's colour page (see the top of this article) and is painted by "Chater" - listed as Chater in the contents. I did some searching but came up blank. I know I have seen his/her name before.

The next article, written by Edward Armstrong, "Birds and bird-watching" appears between pages 33 and 45. 

"Some Gaily coloured British birds" is the title of the colour plate by Raymond Sheppard and shows a Green Woodpecker, Jay, Goldfinch, Blue-Tit, Wren, Magpie, Song Thrush, and Grey Wagtail. Sheppard does a small title illustration to the article too - on page 33.

page 33

Across pages 34-35 we see four birds. 

Pages 34-35
The two songsters above are the gay chaffinch and the brown hedge-sparrow
You can always recognize a thrush by its characteristically speckled breast
The wagtail is so named from the wagging of its long tail and its walk.

Pages 36-37
The outstanding characteristic of the woodpecker is its switchback flight
The snipe is easily recognizable by the zigzag process of its flight
The white-throat shoots up into the air and warbles as it flutters

I would love to see how Sheppard would have illustrated the crazy up and down and all about flight of the lapwing!

Pages 38-39
The best way of attracting a variety of birds is to provide them with a bath.
You will enjoy watching the tit's antics with cheese rind and nesting-box

We once had a magpie splashing about in our sunken pond and one of the best things is watching birds on the feeders whilst washing up. Right now we are seeing juvenile sparrows, goldfinches and starlings a lot.

Pages 40-41
An owl requires a special nesting place.
A barrel placed high up in the the trees with an end entrance is best for brown owls.
Here a baby owl is peering for food.

Page 40
An old jar placed in a forked branch makes an excellent nest for this wren

Page 41
This robin looks pleased with his nest made out of a can fixed onto a branch

Now where do I get a barrel? I wouldn't want to put a glass jar in the tree as if it broke, the cats and hedgehogs wouldn't be happy!

 

Pages 42-43
The best way of watching birds without disturbing them
is to make a 'hide' out of old sacking

*******************************

 

Page 44
A pleasant seashore scene taken from a 'hide' showing avocets and rare birds.

If I had to name two birds that I love watching at RSPB Frampton Marsh (near me) it would be the lapwing and also the emblem of the RSPB, the Avocet, who Sheppard illustrated in the book Avocet Island.

Page 45
You will enjoy visiting the cliffs where gannets and guillemots have their haunts

I love the appearance of shadows on this cliff-side image.  You can see how some of these birds look in colour as published in the Swift comic here

Raymond Sheppard and Biology for General Certificate

Biology for General Certificate, p.275

Biology for General Certificate  by J. T. [John Trevor] Hankinson, M.A. (Biology Master, Canford School) wrote this 344 page school book in 1955 and it was published and reprinted in 1958 and 1959 by Blackie and Son.This was by no means his only book.

•  A Public School Biology. with illustrations by  C. M. Heath. London: Blackie and Son, 1932
• Choosing a Public School. London: Heinemann, 1940
  
• Cricket for Schools. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1946 
• Rugby Football for Schools. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1946
• Hockey for Schools. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1947
• Soccer for Schools. London:  George Allen & Unwin, 1948 [with Alwyn Chadder)
  
• Squash Rackets. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1949 
• Lawn Tennis for Schools. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1951
• Boxing J. T. Hankinson with Richard George Butler Faulkner. London: Allen & Unwin, 1952
• Bowls -Technique and tactics, J. T. Hankinson with Walter Phillips. London:  George Allen & Unwin, 1960

• The Horse and His Rider by Major P.R. Goldingham, Edited by J.T. Hankinson. London George Allen & Unwin, London, 1948

Biology for General Certificate, p.277

Raymond Sheppard drew some lovely animal studies for the book.  They included the Herring, the Eel, the Robin, the Cuckoo and the Rabbit. This book had a forerunner in "A Public School Biology" with "Many of the admirable drawings by C. M Heath [having] been retained and others have been added by Raymond Sheppard, R.I. and B.C.Wood. The high standard has been maintained by contributions from two Canford boys, J.M.F.Mather and J.K. Owen"

Biology for General Certificate, p.284

Biology for General Certificate, p.285

Biology for General Certificate, p.287

 

John Trevor Hankinson's first title in 1932 includes this fact about the author "former biology master and medical tutor". He thanks C. Heath his former pupil, "Exhibitioner of King's College Cambridge" for the drawings. Interestingly, he was featured in 2 photographic articles on Stowe School (Buckingham) in The Graphic (12 December 1931) and the Illustrated London News (10 June 1933). In the book he edited for Major P.R. Goldingham, he states he knew the Major and saw him at Canford, Dorset - from which he resigned his post-war commission on 20 September 1946. The Birmingham Daily Post of the 15 July 1961 tells us that the Danish people were taught cricket by Hankinson who "devoted his summer holiday several times to touring Danish clubs and coaching the younger players". In 1960 the Bookseller magazine tells us with his eighth book ("Bowls") he achieves 70,000 sales for all his books" (25 June 1960, p.21).

 

I suspect he was born in 1904 and died on 31 March 1962, in Charminster, Dorset but can't confirm this.

 

 

 

 

Raymond Sheppard and Blackie's Boys' Annual 1940?

Blackie's Boys' Annual (1940?) p.174
"Beats me", he muttered

"The Great One" written by T. C. Bridges appears in the Blackie's Boys' Annual below. Raymond Sheppard has two illustrations in the story, the first at the head of this article.

Blackie's Boys' Annual (1940?) cover by D. L. Mays

SUMMARY

The story concerns Dick and Lawrence who are cousins staying near the Zambezi with Dick's Uncle who it appears is almost bankrupt. The two teenagers are always in competition until one day a native tells of a lion that swam across the half-mile wide river. Lawrence does not believe it but Dick volunteers to go and shoot it when it is discovered there are tracks on the other side of the crocodile-infested river, but Lawrence feigns a fever to stay behind.  Dick is accompanied by local men whose livestock are being attacked. Unfortunately the lion appears suddenly and Dick finds his ammo has been tampered with. Luckily the palm stems (see second illustration) give Dick time to recover and fire at the brute. In the midst of the adventure Dick falls down a pit and discovers something that will save his Uncle: gold! Lawrence is sent home to England in shame for nearly getting Dick killed .

DATING THE ANNUAL

Trying to date this book is hard (as are a lot of Blackie & Son plus Odhams' titles) but I feel it's 1940 (which is like predicting the future - prone to easy criticism). Stella and Rose's Books date it as 1924 - but there is no interior evidence and indeed it can't be as Sheppard would be 11 years old. Although he was prolific and did draw a lot around that age (see for example here) it's very unlikely he was employed by Blackie in 1924. I wonder if they, like me, looked through the stories to guess how old any historic stories were - and came to 1924 because, there's a tale of "Pasha Peake" and as Wikipedia tells us, 

During the summers of 1921 and 1923, Peake organised the 150-man Reserve Mobile Force, which formed the nucleus of the Arab Legion. 

A Galway bookseller says it's 1930 but I can see no evidence to be that certain and anyway they also state there are "42780 pages" here! There are in fact 208 pages.  I can just see an inscription in my copy - which sadly has been rubbed out - which looks to be 1940.

On the back cover Blackie advertise various titles. The Douglas V. Duff authored "Jack Harding Adventure Series" is one listing, 4 titles being available. Checking dates of these, I found, 

• Harding of the Palestine police 1938 [not on the linked list]
  
• Harding's Mountain Treasure, 1938
• Harding and the Screaming Mantle, 1939
• Jack Harding's Quest, 1939

So I'm going for 1940, but am happy to be contradicted.

THE AUTHOR

Here's the entry for the rather interesting author of the tale, T. C. Bridges, from Lofts and Adley's "The Men Behind Boys' Fiction". 

Bridges, Thomas Charles
Born in France 1868, the son of a clergyman and was educated at Marlborough College. In 1886 he went to Florida to work on an orange plantation, but after much hard work and many adventures he returned to England in 1894, almost penniless, and decided to try his hand at writing. His first two articles on fishing in Florida appeared in The Field, then, after contributing freelance items to many magazines, including Answers - where he joined the latter as a sub-editor - he resigned after about four years to concentrate on freelance writing.
In 1902 he wrote his first boys' story. Gilbert Floyd, who was the editor of Boys Realm, suggested that he write a serial for the paper, and the result was 'Paddy Leary's Schooldays' - the adventures of an Australian boy at an English public school. It was so popular that he wrote two further long sequels and several short stories about the characters.
He also wrote the first story in the new series of the Union Jack, 'With Pick and Lamp'. Apart from being a prolific contributor to many boys' papers, he also wrote books for boys, mainly adventure stories.
In the early 1900's, Bridges and his wife (whom he married in 1899) went to live at Dartmoor, only two miles from the prison. This, no doubt, is why he was fond of writing tales featuring prison life. He wrote Sexton Blake stories for the Union Jack and as late as 1939 he was still contributing to B.O.P., Scout, and Children's Newspaper, where he was affectionately known as T.C.B. In 1928 he published his autobiography 'From Florida to Fleet Street'. His recreations were fishing, golf and gardening, and he was a good friend of Sidney Gowing. He died in Torquay, where he lived during his declining years, in June 1944.

The second illustration by Sheppard is on page 177 and is the rather dramatic image of Dick and the lion.
 

Blackie's Boys' Annual (1940?) p.177
Dick flung himself sideways

Finally here are the contents page listings for this annual to help researchers.

"Pinnacle Ridge" is credited to the author "Hubert Walker" and the accompanying illustrations  to George R Day. Unfortunately someone has listed the colour illustration which is signed by Day as drawn by Walker for page 96.