It’s behind you! Week One: Aladdin

As it’s Christmas and panto season I thought this month I’d do a weekly post covering vintage illustrations for classic pantomime stories.

So first up – Aladdin.

Here’s Mickey Mouse as Aladdin on the cover of the 1974 Disney annual.

Disneyland Annual 1974

From Tales of Long Ago by Enid Blyton Illustrated by Janet and Anne Grahame Johnstone

This book has no illustrator credits. It was first published by Octopus Books Ltd, 1974.

Cover of Fairy Tales retold by Bridget Hadaway

Inside illustration from Fairy Tales retold by Bridget Hadaway

This is from the Children’s Treasury of Literature in Colour that I wrote about here

Illustration by Lowell Hess

And another from the Grahame Johnstone sisters.

From Dean’s Gift Book of Fairy Tales illustrated by Janet and Anne Grahame Johnstone

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Hilda Boswell’s Treasury books

Front covers

I haven’t posted for a while, so here’s two books. They are both Treasury books, by Hilda Boswell, published by Collins. On the left we have Hilda Boswell’s Treasury of Fairy Tales, published in 1962, and on the right, Hilda Boswell’s Treasury of Poetry, first published in 1968, but this is the revised 1978 edition.

I was given the Treasury of Poetry as a Christmas present in the early 1970s. I adored it – I read it over and over again. So much so that when I finally got around to replacing it a few weeks ago, I could remember pretty much every word and illustration. Here’s a small selection:

Clouds and rainbows

I love the lighting around the children on the left.

Mermaids and fairies

Many of Hilda’s illustrations feature little fairy/insect/flower hybrid creatures.

First page of The Wraggle Taggle Gypsies

The Wraggle Taggle Gypsies is a traditional British folk song. There are several versions on Youtube including one by The Waterboys and a long entry about its history on Wikipedia.

Yesterday I came across The Treasury of Fairy Tales. I don’t remember having this book. It’s earlier, and you can see that her style is changing a bit and/or she’s using different media.

Tom Thumb

Illustration from The Wild Swans

Sleeping Beauty

Sleeping Beauty

I can’t find much about Hilda Boswell other than a short Wikipedia entry: She was born in London in 1903 and died in 1976. She is also mentioned in the Wikipedia entry about Anne and Janet Grahame Johnstone. I’ve blogged about them before – and while their styles are different, they were working at more or less the same time and in the same genre. She is most known for illustrating Enid Blyton’s ‘Flower’ books in the 1940s and 1950s.

Back covers

Addition: A request for the poem ‘Summer Morning’ by Rose Fyleman. Seems apt as it is a very hot summer morning!

Books and their illustrators from my childhood number 2

Today’s book is Tales of Long Ago by Enid Blyton and illustrated by Anne and Janet Grahame Johnstone (on title page as Johnstone). This book, published in 1965, was a great favourite of mine. As well as being interested in costume I was really into myths and legends. This book is half stories from Ancient Greece and half stories from the Arabian Nights.

Title page from Tales of Long Ago

Orpheus and Eurydice

Illustration from Aladdin

Proserpina