Mary Evans 1936-2010 - Archivist
In 2003 she achieved a lifelong ambition by acquiring the famous Thomas Fall collection of historical dog pictures, an addition that has proved immensely popular with publishers, especially in the US. Images from her unmatched collection of children's books now form a staple of the library's stock.
Patricia Wrightson - Guardian Obit.
Forgot to blog Julia Eccleshare's obituary of Patricia Wrightson last week. This was published Monday 10th May.
Blame the UK election distraction ;)
David Unwin (Severn) - Obituary
I confess I hadn't heard of (or had completely forgotten) this children's author, who died aged 91 in February, and whose obituary has not appeared in The Times till now...
A much prompter obituary notice appeared here:
http://1930-1960.blogspot.com/2010/02/david-severn.html
Times obituary of the Australian children's writer
William Mayne - Times Obituary
William Mayne obit.
William Mayne has died aged 82.
Julia Eccleshare's obituary was posted online on Monday evening and printed in The Guardian on Tuesday.
Guardian obit., written by Jan Penkowski, of businessman behind the production of pop-up books such as Haunted House...
Susan Einzig - Guardian Obituary
Susan Einzig, who has died aged 87, was one of the 20th century's key British book illustrators, and a central figure in the postwar London art scene. Best known for her illustrations for the children's novel Tom's Midnight Garden (1958), by Philippa Pearce, she illustrated for a range of authors and publishers and was a regular Radio Times artist during its black-and-white heyday in the 1940s and 50s. She continued to paint, draw and exhibit until well into her 80s...
Guardian obituary...
Louise Cooper was prolific author of children's and adult ficiton.
The obituary writer, Emily Thomas, was the editor of many of her Young Adult fantasy novel.s
Guardian obituary
Times obituary
Naomi Lewis - essayist, anthologist, reteller, poet and reviewer - has died aged 97.
When I first started being invited to children's books events (launches and parties) in the mid 1990s, Lewis was a regular guest -slight, somewhat hunched (she would already have been in her late 80s), usually wearing black velvet slippers. It is only recently that I had begun to mark her absence, and indeed wondered if I had missed an obituary.
We often found ourselves together, both making the same enquiry when the the trays of finger food came round (she was a vegetarian).
She lived for literature and animals, and spent most of her life in Red Lion Square. I very much regret not making her the subject of an ACHUKA feature, while she was still in her flat and still actively writing, reviewing and lecturing.
As editorial director of Ladybird Books, Douglas Keen, who has died aged 95, was responsible for the first experience of reading of millions of children...
In addition to her assocaition with Narnia:
The rabbits she drew for the cover of the bestselling Puffin edition of Richard Adams' Watership Down are equally familiar, and other well-known children's books she illustrated include Mary Norton's The Borrowers Avenged (1982), Beatrix Potter's Wag-by-Wall (1987), two volumes of nursery rhymes edited by Iona and Peter Opie, and -- in spite of her frank admission that she couldn't really draw horses -- Anna Sewell's Black Beauty (1984). ...
