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July Jaunts

Gamesmanship [1826] by Stephen Potter was published by Penguin in 1962. The cover drawing is by Nicolas Bentley whose father was the inventor of the clerihew and whose godfather was G K Chesterton.

Nicolas himself became well known as an author and an illustrator (probably most famously for Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats). He was responsible for a number of Penguin covers including those by Stephen Potter, George Mikes and Eric Linklater as well as for his own title How Can You Bear to Be Human [1414] published in 1959. In addition, he is the author of some of those harder to find Penguin greens (as, of course, was his father).

And so, on to the exhibition news...

The Enid Marx and Bawden exhibitions continue to get rave reviews; both end in September so there is still time to visit. Please note there is another Dulwich “Gallery Late” on Friday 13 July.

Sticking to Bawden, don’t forget that the Fry Gallery in Saffron Walden has a special exhibition “Bawden at Home” which runs until the end of October. Of special note this month, however, is a talk by Christopher Brown entitled “Working with Edward Bawden”. This is on Friday 20 July.

If you were interested in the Penguin Student Design Award that I mentioned last month, final judging has taken place and the winners have been announced. I particularly liked the design for Noughts and Crosses; the hand lettering within the pictures of the two main characters works very well.

Turning to PCS Social Media ...

I have been concentrating on Instagram lately because our Instagram “family” is proving to be a very knowledgeable bunch. They post some wonderful pictures and many of them have in-depth information about the titles, their authors, illustrators and cover designers as well as intriguing stories about the personal history of the books themselves. If you follow PCS on Instagram then I thoroughly recommend that you look at the postings that I have liked or check out those people that PCS is following. Instagram is, by nature, of the moment; but it is rather like the Venn diagrams one made at school where interconnecting interests come together.

On Twitter it is slightly easier to backtrack as the items that I like or retweet are held on our PenguinCollSoc page. I use Twitter as a method of alerting you to something that is going on or something that I think you might find interesting or amusing (not necessarily Penguin related).

Facebook is a more general listing that I keep for reminding you about such items as details of the AGM.

You can contact me through any of these social media, or through the address on the Contact Us page.

Finally, two last points ...

I am looking forward to receiving my Collector later this month. I hear rumours of some fascinating articles as well as all the information about the AGM (12-14 October in Reading).

My blog recommendation this month is The Silver Locket's blog page. Julia is one of PCS’ instagram family with a background in travel and childrens’ books. There are two particularly relevant items that you might enjoy (both written in 2017). The first is a lovely tribute to Edward Ardizzone. Secondly, take a look at a hymn to Nigel Slater, a fun read which includes some beautiful John Minton illustrations of Elizabeth David titles towards the end. Julia is considering taking up her blog again – maybe this will spur her on!

Happy summer bookhunting

Caroline Maddison






Posted on Tuesday, 10th July 2018