BRIAN’S ILLUSTRATED LIFE STORY

chapter 3

HIS AWARD WINNING ABC TO THE MOVE TO FRANCE

1962 - 1971

- AT THE END OF EACH PAGE IS A LINK TO THE NEXT -

 
 

With his truly ground breaking ABC in 1962, Brian “changed the face of picture books and children’s illustration forever.” Ron Heapy

“Quite the most beautiful one I have ever seen,” Daily Telegraph.


Passionate, powerful and bursting with colour, the groundbreaking ABC was published in 1962 and awarded the Library Association’s Kate Greenaway Medal, (now called The CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal) the only award in the UK to solely reward outstanding illustration in a children’s book. The faith Mabel George had entrusted in Brian, combined with the new developments in colour printing, were a highly rewarding and fruitful combination which, “changed the face of picture books,” wrote Mabel’s successor, Ron Heapy, in his book, A Hundred Years of Oxford University Press Children’s Books, 2007.


 
 

Seen here in his London studio in the 60s, Brian was first and foremost a painter.
In this detail of the butterfly’s wing from his ABC, “…the brush strokes have an impetuous tactile quality, the paint looks thick and fresh, and even now you feel that if you closed the book, the pages would stick together…”


Ruth Prickett, who had lunched with Brian on his 80th birthday at Rules restaurant in London, wrote, “As anyone under 40 is repeatedly reminded, those who were around in the sixties - and can remember anything about it - tend to recall a golden age of optimism, creativity and liberty. Nostalgia plays its part in this, but one man who did almost more than anyone else to translate the period’s vibrant colours, emotional expressiveness and exciting sense of freedom into illustration is Brian Wildsmith. His ABC burst into the staid world of children’s publishing with a rainbow of bold and brilliant images and helped set the tone for a new era of children’s books.”


 
 

Three of Brian’s earliest known oil paintings on canvas, all from the 1960s. It would appear that the 2nd one, which appears on the cover of Edward Blishen’s book Miscellany One and which daughters, Clare and Rebecca, can be seen pretend-painting, was later flipped 180° and mostly re-painted. In its finished form (pic 2) It hung in our home for over 40 years as can be seen in the 1st image.
Brian’s return to painting in the 1980s is documented in the next chapter.


Through our numerous exchanges with Helen Mortimer, Brian’s last editor at Oxford University Press, we discovered that in May 1963, in the chilly depths of the Cold War, his ABC had been chosen by the National Book League to be presented to Mrs Krushchev, wife of the then Soviet leader, when she visited an exhibition of British children’s books in Moscow. A press release kept on file at Oxford University Press, says: “Six copies of the book are being hurried today to London Airport. In Moscow, the British Embassy will take charge of them and convey them to the Children’s Book House.”

“It seemed,” wrote Brian, “that my career as a children's illustrator was taking off.”

Stephanie Nettell, who had interviewed Brian for the July 1963 issue of Books and Bookmen, outlines his spirit at that time, “As he speaks you can sense the enthusiasm he brings to his work; he is tremendously pleased with the success of the book but there is not the slightest suggestion that the thrill lies in Brian Wildsmith’s personal achievement - rather, a strangely innocent pleasure in the combined triumph of British art, Oxford University Press, Mabel George, children, colour printing and just life itself.”

As it is succinctly demonstrated by a number of actors in the 2008 BBC programme, When We Were Very Young, it is important to understand the historical context concerning the children’s books that were available for parents to buy for their children up until the ABC. For example, Enid Byton’s Noddy books, which had been so enormously successful, (and forbidden in our home, let alone our bedrooms) were rapidly falling out of favour with 60s parents. “They contained lots of violence with mischievous toys being dragged off for a good spanking, stories about doing naughty things and then everyone having to say sorry, and an abundance of policemen and figures of authority throwing their weight around. All very puritanical, with a strange fascination for crime and punishment.” All this twisted morality felt out of tune with the more permissive times. By the 60s, liberal minded parents wanted something more progressive for their children and this demand would be met by a new generation of illustrators and artists coming out of art school. “What Brian did with his ABC was new. It is a riot of colour and texture and he was the first to use paint in illustration in such an exuberant way. His ABC coincided with new ways of looking at childhood which encouraged each individual’s potential. Picture books had a vital role in this. People were thinking about childhood being important now, carting out the old ways and in with the new!”

THE APPLENESS OF AN APPLE, THE LIONNESS OF A LION

Looking back, Brian commented to Pat Triggs of Books For Keeps, “I'd just begun to formulate what it was I wanted to do for children. I like there to be an inherent logic to everything I do. The logical function of an ABC is to teach. To teach how? Through basic shapes, colours and textures. It was a new concept: to produce pictures of value in their own right which would stimulate and excite children.” Talking of this same book but in different circumstances, Brian also said “When producing an image in paint, it is my conviction that the essential quality is to, if say one were painting an apple, to produce the appleness of an apple or the lionness of a lion. This is the soul of the matter, the one ingredient which, if missing, will rob the image of the one quality which will give it life and truth.”

The book received tremendous reviews both in Great Britain and the United States after being bought by Helen Hoke Watts, vice president and director of international projects, as well as wife of the publisher Franklin Watts in New York. Indeed, Helen was so enthusiastic about the book that she mortgaged her life insurance policy to publish it. The Watts were to remain Brian’s American publishers and great friends for the next fifteen years, during which time they published 21 of his titles, until control of the company changed hands.

“As little children, we loved it when Helen flew over from the States, always 1st class with Pan Am, to discuss work plans and ideas with our father. To keep us amused during their discussions, that often went on for hours, she devised plans to keep us entertained so we would not interrupt them. She would buy a second 1st class ticket, next to hers, to safely transport a huge Mexican Piñata in the shape of an animal. We remember one most particularly, a huge pink bull that our dad hung in a tree in the garden for us to beat with broom sticks, following the tradition, until it would rupture and spew its inner goodies-a-plenty to the ground. Clever stuff, for that second part also kept us away from the grown-ups and entertained for many hours!

”Other times she would arrive with a purse full of silver sixpences (this was before the UK went decimal) and would promptly tell us all to disappear into the garden, while she hid them around our house. Her discussions with Brian would only commence once she had given us the order to start searching! All we could think about was how many sweeties we would then be able to buy down at the local sweet shop. We loved Helen!”

LA FONTAINE’S FABLES

We all have strong and and tremendously fun memories of Helen Hoke Watts. With her husband Frank, she was Brian’s American publisher - a larger than life, hugely charismatic, drole and generous lady.

“I wanted to choose my own subject for my next picture book,” said Brian, “which was the story of the life of a young African boy’s initiation into manhood.” Mabel George however, pointed out that “to achieve our dream of beautiful productions, we needed international cooperation to cover the enormous costs involved in the printing of full-colour picture books.” This was the sixties and Brian’s idea wasn’t considered commercial enough: “…and so we embarked upon a project we hoped would introduce my work to the European continent - adapted versions of five of La Fontaine’s Fables, illustrated in the form of picture books.” The first of the series, The Lion and the Rat, published in 1963, was runner-up for the Kate Greenaway award that year. The Times Literary Supplement wrote: “Brian Wildsmith has taken a familiar La Fontaine fable, reduced it to the barest minimum of words and then clothed it in the most glorious, exciting and evocative colours. His lion burns like Blake’s tiger among the deep greens and blues of his mysterious jungle. A book of startling originality, it has the freedom from inhibition of the child matched with the virtuosity of a master craftsman.” The Junior Bookshelf was equally enthusiastic: “In this startling and magnificent story of the jungle, Brian Wildsmith explores the wonder and beauty and terror of the forest. With such a theme, the danger might lie in monotony. Mr Wildsmith avoids this by swinging his eyes - like a movie camera from long shot to close-up, capturing the darkness of the deep jungle and the whole range of its inhabitants, great carnivores, delicate birds, the tangle of undergrowth… the work of a master and above all, a master of colour.”

HIS LION BURNS LIKE BLAKE’S TIGER


 
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From The Lion and the Rat


Donna Rae MacCann & Olga Richard’s equally pertinent analysis of the illustrations remind us again that Brian was first and foremost a painter and one who chose paper over canvas for his expression. They wrote in, The Child’s First Books, published by The H. W. Wilson Company, New York, 1973: “Wildsmith demonstrates a bold and inventive use of colour. He constructs the entire form of an animal or object with varying colors. These colors are not always related to the natural object, but have been added simply because that is what an artist does when he is interested in color as an art element. The different hues become Wildsmith’s way of enhancing form and of suggesting the animation of nature. There is a blue rat who seems to quiver with consciousness because of the color assigned to him, as well as the textural qualities of the detail.”


 
 

Here, a family treasure: our father’s rough book for his rendition of La Fontaine’s famous fable The Lion and the Rat.
Of this book, The Times Literary Supplement wrote: “It is a book of startling originality, it has the freedom from inhibition of the child matched with the virtuosity of a master craftsman.”

You can view the printed book here


 
 

Click on a cover to see the book contents


SPECTACULAR COLOURIST

When Bettina Hürlimman of Atlantis Verlag Publishers in Zürich, who knew Brian as an experienced line illustrator, recognised his emergence as a ‘spectacular colourist’, she too purchased it. By doing so she became involved in the distribution of his work throughout all German-speaking countries, also and later, translating twelve of his other picture books. The La Fontaine series was completed with illustrations for The North Wind and the Sun in 1964, The Rich Man and the Shoemaker, 1965, The Hare and the Tortoise, 1966 (still in print) and finally The Miller, the Boy and the Donkey in 1969. Of The North Wind and the Sun, The School Librarian wrote, “Brilliant mosaic patterns and colours, a blend of subtlety and simplicity make this a treasure house book… a blow to the notion that children must have representational pictures, this book seals the contract between child and artist.” In choosing this book for his Kamishibai Storytelling Theatre from 2015 onwards, Gerard Jäger, owner of Art Basics for Children in Belgium, had possibly never read that review but he had recognised Brian’s, “timeless style and use of colours,” as well as enjoyed, “his subtle sense of humour.”

 

 

A scene inspired by a visit to the loft in the middle of the night to inspect a leaking water cistern. From The Rich Man and The Shoemaker.

 

While Brian was painting the illustrations for The Rich Man and the Shoe-maker, he needed a suitable place for the shoe-maker to hide his bag of gold. One night he had to go into the attic to investigate the hot-water cistern that was leaking. As he peered into the loft with his torchlight, hundreds of little birds were perched fast asleep on the timbers. This amazing scene sparked the idea for the ninth illustration in the book. The unexpected penguin in the picture is in reference to Rebecca’s soft-toy, Ho-gie, who went everywhere she went. Aurélie had made it for her during a six-month hospitalisation for a back injury. The penguin was named after the ward she was in: William Hogarth. (An English 18th century painter, print-maker and social critic.)


 

In 2008 Oxford University Press published Favourite Fables, a compilation of the 5 La Fontaine fables seen below. CLICK ON BOOK COVER to see the book contents.

In 2008 Oxford University Press published Favourite Fables, a compilation of the 5 La Fontaine fables seen below. CLICK ON BOOK COVER to see the book contents.

REVOLUTIONARY USE OF ABSTRACTED PATTERN AND BOLD DESIGN

In her opening speech for the exhibition, Wild About Colour, held at The Story Museum in Oxford six months after Brian’s death, Helen Mortimer of Oxford University Press said: “Looking at these paintings now, it is not difficult to imagine – with a spine-tingling sense of excitement – the sort of impact their shimmering colours, revolutionary use of abstracted pattern and bold design, and joyous, untrammelled energy must have had when they were first published in the 1960s. The North Wind and the Sun is a book that stands out in my memory from my own childhood – the jewel-bright splintered fragments of colour that seemed to disperse and then gather on the pages before my eyes in all sorts of striking configurations, sometimes as buildings, sometimes around the wind’s face, sometimes as the patchwork costumes of the townspeople. And they did seem to me to be costumes rather than clothes – the book for me was as much a theatrical experience as it was a reading one.”


 
 

Above, extracts from The North Wind and the Sun, The Hare and the Tortoise, The Rich Man and the Shoe-maker, The Lion and the Rat and The Miller, the Boy and the Donkey.



Before illustrating Mother Goose, one of Brian’s personal favourites, Helen Hoke Watts had sent out a survey to schools throughout the USA asking children to choose the nursery rhymes they loved the most. Compiled and produced in 1964 and, “filled with luminescent colour,” the book was highly successful and Brian acclaimed, “probably the best illustrator at work for children today,” by Robert Nye of The Guardian. It had followed the publication of The Oxford Book of Poetry for Children in 1963, another compilation book, only this time by Edward Blishen, which Brian was not so fond of as he explained: “I never felt totally satisfied with it mainly because of its format and number of pages, resulting in a somewhat cramped piece of work where texts and drawings have not been allocated sufficient breathing space.” (To posthumously “repair” this “cramped piece of work”, and better show you the gorgeous illustrations from this book, we have removed the texts as you may see by clicking below.) Margaret Sherwood Libby, writing in the Sunday Herald Tribune, had also compared the two books stating her preference for the gay, modern illustrations” of Mother Goose, “gleaming with colour,” as well as the “juxtaposition of brilliant hues.”


Following the publication of Mother Goose in 1964, Brian was proclaimed “Probably the best illustrator at work for children today” by Robert Nye of The Guardian.

Click HERE to see the illustrations from the Oxford Book of Poetry for Children
and HERE to see Mother Goose now re-titled as Brian Wildsmith’s Favourite Nursery Rhymes.


Brian recalls, “The illustrations for this book were created in a tiny garden shed that served as my studio, in a tiny London garden at the back of our tiny house. Everyday after school my children would crash into the studio and I would observe their reactions to what I had done that day. It was their reactions that dictated the value of what I had painted. They were my guidelines in trying to produce images which children would react to with joy and wonder.” In A Child’s Garden of Verses, 1966, the joys and sorrows, fears and fantasies of an imaginative solitary child are brought together in Robert Louis Stevenson’s poems for children, first published in 1885. “Mr. Wildsmith’s illustrations brilliantly complete this work,” wrote The New York Times.


 
 

A selection of infinitely charming illustrations from Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses, 1966. Brian, who so loved children’s drawings, added three by his own kids to Happy Thought, the 1st image: The striped elephant was Clare’s, the blonde haired girl was by Rebecca and the three ducks by Anna.



 
 

Brian didn’t often involve his kids in the promotion of his books.
Two known exceptions to that are seen here. The first and third for Oxford University Press, the second for Franklin Watts.



AN ARRAY OF HEDGEHOGS, A NURSERY OF RACOONS, A CLUSTER OF PORCUPINE FISH…

 
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Brian’s first attempt at helping to offer children a richer vocabulary was a project around the use of collective nouns, notably those concerning animals which were, and still are, disappearing from popular English language. His imagination had been stirred in Wandsworth Library while admiring the beautiful 18th century copperplate listings in a Webster’s dictionary: a ‘pride of lions,’ a ‘wedge of swans’, an ‘array of hedgehogs,’ a ‘nursery of racoons.’ “Owls, however, are generally solitary creatures,” Brian pointed out, “when seen together the group is called a parliament, but I preferred to call them ‘a stare of owls.’

These owls and their hypnotic gaze and other illustrations of Brian’s are beautifully reproduced on greetings cards in box sets by ArtPress, UK and can be purchased from The Royal Academy of Arts.

 

The result was a series of three picture books simply entitled: Birds, which was commended for the 1967 Kate Greenaway medal, Wild Animals, and Fishes, published in 1967 and 1968 (also available, since 2010, as Animal Gallery, a paperback compilation of the three titles was published on 19th May 2020 by Candlewick Studio, U.S.A. and is available to pre-order). It also led to a month long promotional tour of the United States, addressing school children and librarians, accompanied by his New York publisher, Franklin Watts.


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Reviewing these books, Joanna Carey evokes “stunningly beautiful images, rich in colour, texture and pattern, that explore the natural world. Bringing the art of illustration a little closer to the art of painting, these books are as rewarding as they are inspirational… The use of colour and texture is magical in its variety – the wrinkled skin of the elephant is thickly painted, while the rhinoceros is delicately depicted in line and wash; then there are the fishes – rainbow fish flaunting their jewel colours, on a splashy spattered background, and the subtly stippled trout, hovering in the underwater stained glass luminosity of it all. Most memorable of all are the owls whose hypnotic stare fixes you and defies you to turn the page.”


 
 


EXPRESSING IN COLOUR THE WONDER AND BEAUTY OF OUR WORLD

Brian, who was “expressing in colour the wonder and beauty of our world,” continued his frenetic production pace of a book every seven to eight months. On average, each one included the cover, two end papers, a half title page, a full title page and sixteen double spreads. Most often he painted to scale, so his illustrations are the same size as they appear in the books.

The sixties saw three other titles. The first is his interestingly “controversial” 123, published in 1965, because, “it replaces the conventional number book with a play of almost abstract forms sparkling and glowing like stained glassed windows,” wrote Bettina Hürlimann in Picture Book World in 1968. Brian liked it because, as he said, “It is a complete book, beautifully printed and despite most of the pundits’ outcries, it has more than justified itself commercially. The book is an attempt to create in the child’s mind deliberate and basic facts about numbers, shapes and forms. Until they are related to something specific, numbers, figures and indeed all mathematics are abstract. I have taken the basic abstract forms: the rectangle, the triangle and the circle and related them to numbers. The book progresses through these basic shapes that build up into recognisable forms to give the child an understanding of the beauty and fascination of figures and also makes him or her aware that the world around us is, broadly speaking, built around basic shapes.” The book received the Brooklyn Art Books for Children citation in 1973 for literary and artistic excellence in the creation of books for young children.


 

Brian’s seventh book, 1 2 3 produced in 1965 was considered controversial because, “it replaces the conventional number book with a play of almost abstract forms sparkling and glowing like stained glassed windows.”

With time it became recognised as belonging to his “harlequin” period.

 

It was followed by The Bible Story in 1968.

As a cradle catholic, Brian said of these forty eight stories that cover the Old and New Testaments: “In accepting this assignment I realised that I was facing the greatest challenge an artist can have: the Old Testament alone covers over 4000 years of history and a multitude and great variety of characters and motivations. This means that each picture has to be a distinctive creation by itself.” For its marketing and publicity campaign, Franklin Watts wrote: “In bringing home to young readers the truths behind the historical, poetical and prophetic books that make up the Bible, Philip Turner communicates the strength and beauty of man's faith in God. Brian Wildsmith’s illuminating, striking and sensitive illustrations complement the dignity and simplicity of Philip Turner's texts and help to make this book an admirable introduction to the Bible itself.”


 
 

Above: original illustration from The Bible Story, 1968.
”…In the middle of the column priests carried the Ark of God containing the stone tablets which Moses had brought down from the mountain.”


 
 

Brian’s illustrations for The Bible Story, Oxford University Press, 1968 are amongst his most masterful in their combination of pure emotion and power.
The execution of his vision by means of vigorous, assured, yet delicate line-drawing, combined with the virtuosity of his painting is astonishing.


I WOULD FEEL UNWELL IF NOT PAINTING

Now unleashed, the creative vigour Brian had during this decade was phenomenal: fifty three book wrappers and commissioned illustrations, alongside fourteen book titles of his own were published over this period. He often pointed out to journalists that he would feel quite unwell if not painting, “It was what I was born to do and I don’t feel right if I’m not doing it.” The commendations cited by Franklin Watts Inc. in their promotional booklet at that time must have been received as a wonderful reward for all his hard work: “Nine of Brian Wildsmith’s brilliantly coloured books were selected by the American Library Association for their notable Children’s Book List. Winner of the Kate Greenaway medal for distinguished work in illustrating children's books in 1962, he was commended by the same committee in 1964 and 1967. His works were cited on the Horn Book awards list of 1964 and The New York Times Book Review list of outstanding books in 1964, 1965, 1966 and 1967.”

An event earlier in this decade that Brian was especially flattered by, was the phone call he received on Christmas Eve, 1963, from a representative of UNICEF. He was asked if he would create five illustrations for their seasonal greeting cards, and produced works depicting one animal for each of the 5 known continents at that time. Several million copies of these cards would sell internationally and for the best possible cause, the defence of children’s rights.


 
 

In 1963, Brian was commissioned by UNICEF to produce 5 seasonal greeting cards, each representing one continent.
They sold in their millions for the best possible cause, the defence of children’s rights.


He had also fathered four children with our mother, of whom he had written, “If I had searched the world from corner to corner, I could never have met, married and lived with a better person. She did everything imaginable to bring me happiness. She has been my greatest lover, friend and companion.” Those children are Clare, born in 1958, Rebecca in 1959, Anna in 1963, and Simon in 1965. If Anna had not died tragically on 30th September 2016, a month after her father, she would have been a most proactive member of our team for this project, and her character, incisiveness, intelligence, humour and writing talent are sorely missed in the writing of this story and the creation of this site.


 
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Anna Wildsmith, West Berlin, 1989. Pic: Peter Gruchot.


As the size of our family grew in step with Brian’s success, more and more space was needed to accommodate us all. We lived in the same street, Atkins Road in London’s Balham, for over fourteen years, moving from a small flat when Aurélie and Brian were first married, to two other houses, numbers 37 and 45, each one larger than the last. A primary and a high school, both Catholic, were very conveniently located on the same street, which was useful for getting four kids to school on time. In renovating the last house in this street, Brian experienced one of the most terrifying episodes of his life: a circular saw accident in which he almost lost the use of his right hand. Despite the severity of this accident, which required a great many stitches to repair, he was fortunate, one might say, in being ambidextrous and mostly left-handed. This event left an indelible mark on his mind that steered him away from using electrical tools for the rest of his life. We can consider ourselves grateful for this as his DIY skills were, quite frankly, appalling!


 
 

Photographs of the family and our various homes in the 60s


The next move was a significant one, as this time Brian would build a contemporary house in London’s Dulwich and he would be involved in Russel Vernon’s architectural plans. Most importantly for him, it would include a studio, conceived solely for his creative purposes, affording him more space and light with its domed glass roof. Here, alongside his books, he produced a small run of silk-screen prints, that stunningly combine his line drawing skills with bold flat expanses of the most vibrant coloured inks. We possess several of these never before seen or exhibited, quite beautiful works of art.


 
 

Never before seen: a series of silk-screen prints Brian produced in the late 60s in Dulwich, London.


The first step towards a later move, closer to the Mediterranean sun, happened in 1964, soon after Brian and Aurélie discovered what was then a sleepy port of proud Catalans, in Rosas on the Costa Brava. They purchased a top floor apartment in one of only a handful of buildings with more than three floors, in the entire 16km bay. Next door was the Hotel Marina with its excellent poolside gin & tonics. The appropriately named Résidence de la Plage, had only a sandy track separating it from vast expanses of fine white sand and the mostly tame Mediterranean Sea.

ROSAS, SPAIN

The Spanish, ostensibly, love children, and their manner of mixing the generations throughout life’s events at all hours of the day and night, made for a most convivial atmosphere and a vivid change from London. Hours were spent soaking up the warm atmosphere as if it could be bottled and drip fed back later in the greyer climes of home. Brian and Aurélie believed their children were safe here, and so for us, delicious freedom was the order of the day. We spent most of our time playing on the beach or riding our bicycles, with Clare and Rebecca made responsible for keeping Anna and Simon out of trouble, a treacherous task indeed. The family motored down through France from London in the days before motorways and speed restrictions, in Brian's beautiful English racing green Daimler 250 V8.

Brian and his beautiful English racing green Daimler V8 that he sold to his brother Alan before moving to France in 1971. He believed some level of integration there might be eased by owning a French car - A Citroen DS shooting break that he also rapidly sold because in the back, it caused mysterious and violent car sickness in us all.

He was a fast driver and the journey took much less time than it would today. Every summer and most Easters were spent in Rosas. Brian had a studio there too, that doubled up as Simon’s bedroom, and overlooked the sea. To remain happy and efficient, even on the family holiday, he required the availability of paper and paint. The tight schedule required for finishing his books on time would not allow him the length of holiday his wife and children enjoyed.

The Saturday evening ritual demanded they wine and dine in Figueras. The apéritif was taken at their favourite bar at the higher eastern end of the Rambla. This was always followed by supper at one establishment and one establishment only: the Hotel Restaurant Duran on Carrer Lasauca (a three-minute walk from the Dali museum that had not yet been built). We ate there with such frequency and regularity, often accompanied by friends from London, that a cellar space with wall-to-wall barrels of Xeres and Moscatel was usually privatised for the Wildsmith clan. On one occasion, bored and taking advantage of the grown-ups’ endless chatter and distraction, a very young Simon turned on all the barrel taps, until a sandal-clad lady in the party raised the alarm upon feeling an unmistakable wetness between her toes. The cellar was half an inch deep in ‘Moscatel’ the local sweet white wine usually served in a porron, (a traditional Catalan wine pitcher) for several people to share without anyone’s lips ever touching its very fine spout, but children could apparently do no wrong in 1960’s Spain and even the usually militarily straight-faced and terribly shy hotel-owner, Señor Duran, could not hide an awkward and embarrassed smile as he pretended to tell Simon off.

WINE OVER DALI

When he wasn't busy declaring nearby Perpignan train station the centre of the universe, or galavanting around London in a deep-sea diving suit, Salvador Dali was another regular at the Duran. He would always sit in the same place, opposite the bar, to the left, at the entrance to the hotel, on a semi circular sofa that was embedded in the wall as part of the room’s predominantly wooden-clad, typically Catalan architecture. With his retinue of aides, friends and hangers on, he was simply glorious in his extravagant clothes, with his diamanté-collared ocelot and Bishop’s staff by his side. In the days when Spanish men only dressed in various tones of dark, wow did he stick out! One evening, running around with his older sister and accomplice Anna, while their parents were busy chatting, dear little Simon (again!) thought it opportune to spill Señor Dali’s glass of white wine right down the front of his cream coloured, gold-threaded robe. As our blushing mother rushed over to offer her heartfelt apologies for this unfortunate accident in her fairly convincing Catalan, Dali stood up, summoned Simon to his side, placed his palm on his forehead and blessed him: “C’est un brave garçon” he said.

Back in England, Oxford University Press were organising a trip in which Brian would tour the USA and Canada with Ivor Owen and Rosemary Duff, respectively President and Public Relations manager, to encourage sales and promote his titles at book fairs. These trips were coordinated with invitations to give talks to librarians and to school children as well as partaking in the relentless but welcome book-signing sessions that accompany such events. During these tightly scheduled trips he delighted many a child, younger or older, with what was ‘his party piece’: a performance in which he would simultaneously, and thanks to his ambidexterity, draw on a black or white board, a face to face mirror image of an animal (usually a lion with birds perched on it’s back and tail) and sign his name under the left image, from right to left, and under the right image, from left to right: one animal and signature becoming the mirror image of the other!

 

AN ARTISTIC EDUCATIONALIST

Promoting literacy was, as it is today, an especially important topic during this era, UNESCO having proclaimed the sixties: “The decade of language and literacy skills development.” Given his chosen career and his educational commitments within that, Brian’s personal beliefs were definitely in tune with this goal: “I want to help children climb the mountain of life and reach the peak of enlightenment and fulfillment,” he had said, “this is the basic right of every child born on our Earth.” Bettina Hürlimann, an international authority on the subject of children’s book illustration and who knew Brian very well, proclaimed in Seven Houses, My Life with Books, Bodley Head, 1976, that ‘he was an artistic educationalist.’

Puzzles, specifically designed to stimulate children’s imagination, was created in 1970 just before Brian published a book he later somewhat regretted. Circus with its caged lions, performing seals and bicycling bears provoked controversy.

This is utterly understandable from today’s standpoint where we mostly abhor the capture, confinement and coercive training of animals for human entertainment, but in the 70s, circuses involving performing animals were commonplace. Voices, it would seem, were already objecting. Some things are just too long in the changing! Nonetheless, the illustrations from this book are magnificent as can be seen here. Some years later in 1983 in France, Brian produced a book called If I Were You, partly on the subject of animal captivity. It is a short, small format book with a big message on a theme that had become so close to his heart: that of freedom. He often talked about it - freedom in all its forms, with the inherent responsibilities that give it sense.

 

 
 

Here is Brian’s ‘rough’ for If I Were You a book about animal freedom and children’s fantastic abilities to project to an elsewhere.

If I Were You in its printed form can be viewed on the Books page.


 

DREAMING OF BEAUTIFUL COUNTRYSIDE, GLORIOUS WEATHER AND COMPLETING MY ART EDUCATION

Fashions and consciences change and evolve, and so had his, so after some self interrogation, Brian decided to now tell stories founded on the humanitarian principles he believed necessary in developing a child’s future responsibilities towards society. In earlier years when Mabel George had encouraged Brian to turn his hand to writing, Brian had retorted: “But my English is terrible!” To which Mabel responded, “I have editors with ink pots full of full stops and commas. It's ideas that count and you've got them.” His first book to follow this new commitment was The Owl and the Woodpecker in 1971 and proudly for him, it was commended for the Kate Greenaway medal. This book meant so much to him in fact that he said, “It marked a turning point in my life, sparking the desire to breathe in a different atmosphere. I started dreaming of beautiful countryside, glorious weather, as well as easy access to the cultural and artistic centres of Europe to complete my art education.”


 
 

Brian and Aurélie, decided to leave London and move to the south of France with their four children. The fact that the children all had dual English/French nationality contributed towards choosing France, as this simplified dealing with some aspects of the legendary bureaucracy that would lay ahead. Shortly before this major change in all our lives, Brian undertook a three week tour of Japan organised by his new Japanese editor, Mr Tokuro Uchino of Rakuda Publishing. He addressed more than three thousand teachers, educationalists, booksellers and children at meetings arranged throughout the country and returned exhausted, but bowled over by the generosity, enthusiasm and good will of the Japanese people towards him and his work. He also adored the food and, “the glorious gardens, beautiful landscapes and National Parks that occupy much, if not most, of the Japanese Islands.”


 
 

Extracts from Puzzles, The Circus and The Owl and the Woodpecker.