"A Twit's Story at Seven Stories"

Over the past two months we have been very lucky to have been host to a wonderful work placement student all of the way from Spain.  She has been working so hard on our book and archival collections that we don't want to let her leave (we might get in trouble if we lock her in the store - we would keep her supplied with cake and tea!). Here is her account of one of her (many) projects here: 

When I first wrote to Seven Stories about the possibility of having me for an Erasmus+ placement at the Collection and Exhibition department, I thought my chances were quite slim. After all, I was just a Spaniard finishing a Library and Information Science degree whose experience regarding archives was really quite minuscule. But I guess archive collection fairies do exist (they do! They do!), and perhaps my letter really showed an excess of excitement about the idea, so I did find myself at Seven Stories Collection Team office one grey morning in early August, having tea with the fairies. Hooray!

Ever since, I’ve been fiddling with a number of different collections, both comprised of books and original material, but the one collection that has taken up most of my time is David Wood’s. Now, Kris and Danielle, who are in charge of processing original archival material, both say they did not assign me this collection to give me a fright, and I choose to believe them, because they are otherwise really lovely people. But the fact is, it is quite an unusual one! It is huge, for starters, spanning from 1954 to 2013 and filling up 137 archival boxes, and though they are many plays represented in other collections, David Wood is the only playwright with a collection of his own. It also came in three different lots (or accessions), which were at different stages of processing. We needed to take some files out of your ordinary cardboard boxes into those nice minty-coloured, acid-free archival boxes, so that we could list their contents and restructure them in a way that was consistent with the tree structure created when cataloguing the first accession!

But, in all seriousness, I actually think I was really lucky to be assigned to David Wood, because I feel like I learnt an awful lot from it all, and the material is absolutely delightful to go through. The main feeling that I’ll take home with me is, I think, that cataloguing for an archive is a bit like reconstructing a story, and hopefully you will come out at the other end of the process being able to tell it to other people, both from beginning to end or just cherry-picking the juicy bits! Hopefully, that is what I’ll manage to do with this post!

David Wood is known as the ‘national children’s playwright’ and his commitment to providing children with challenging, entertaining, high-quality theatre is evident in everything he writes. He puts it brilliantly on his website:

“In all my plays there is a determination not to patronise children, rather to emotionally involve them in a strong and fast-moving storyline. They offer opportunities for imaginative set, costume and lighting design, for special effects and, sometimes, puppetry.  They all have “lots of suddenlies…” A Canadian children’s book publisher, with whom I was once interviewed on television, when trying to explain what works for children, told how her own daughter, aged 8, put down a book, saying how much she had enjoyed it. “Why?” asked her mother, mainly out of professional interest. “Lots of suddenlies” came her daughter’s reply. It’s been my motto ever since.”

The Seven Stories collection holds exactly 65 plays, 21 books, and 13 film, TV and radio adaptations. As you can imagine, he had to start at an early age to get so much done! Indeed, the archive includes a notebook with his very first play, written at the age of 10 for a fundraising event. The effort granted him an award from the Enid Blyton’s busy bee club!

Notebook with David Wood's first play, programme, a review in the local newspaper, and the Busy Bees award

 Kudos from the Queen Bee

David Wood’s name is invariably paired with Roald Dahl’s, as the former adapted many of the latter’s novels into plays, such as the BFG, or Danny, Champion of the World, or The Witches, or James and the Giant Peach, or Fantastic Mr Fox, or The Twits! Even a version of Matilda that did not see the light in the end, but is most welcome to stay here at Seven Stories among her Dahlesque peeps. (We’re sure she’d love it here at the archive!) He’s also famously adapted novels from other big names in children’s literature such a Philippa Pearce (Tom’s Midnight Garden), Judith Kerr (The Tiger Who Came to Tea), Michael Foreman (Dinosaurs and All That Rubbish), or Philip Pullman (Clockwork). Additionally, he has written his fair share of plays based on well-known folklore and fairy tales, though they are all rather peculiar versions. Marian and the Witches’ Charm may be based on Robin Hood but he is not in it and the cast is all female! Also, his Goldilocks is titled ‘The Porridge Pincher’. Isn’t it easy to see why David Wood and Roald Dahl’s books are such a fine match?

Still, he is probably best-known for his original musical play ‘The Gingerbread Man’, about a heroic anthropomorphic biscuit who lives in a kitchen cupboard. This play is actually very representative of David’s production, in that his works often exist in various forms and target different audiences over the years. He first wrote it in 1977 but since then it has had twelve West End seasons and toured widely, both in the UK and abroad. The production put up by David Wood’s own theatre company, Whirligig Theatre, even got broadcast by Channel 4! It also got adapted into two storybooks, an audio play, and a model animated TV series. It is a really good thing that David Wood has written us lovely introductory notes explaining the context for each play in the Seven Stories collection, since they have been incredibly useful for organising the documents and often managed to be extremely witty and informative at the same time. We are using them as archive material of their own! 

 The Gingerbread Man in many shapes! A play manuscript and programme, a published copy and a TV episode list

Since his work was adapted for many foreign tours, the collection documents different cultural sensibilities about plays for children, both in the letters to overseas producers and through the notes that he sometimes typed up after attending a particularly thought-provoking production (including some baffled lines about witches getting banned from children’s plays). He is clearly someone interested in analysing different cultural perspectives, for instance when he adapted the Japanese opera Kureomon, he ended up writing a file of notes about how the British audience would receive it. 

Figure 4 - Programmes for different productions of the BFG, original Japanese programme of Kureomon, and David Wood's file of 'Thoughts on the adaptation of Kureomon for British audiences

'But David Wood’s works often underwent formal changes, as well. This is another aspect that makes this collection particularly valuable, because not only does it document David Wood’s original creative process, but also the rewriting of content for different media. Besides book proofs, drafts and scores, the collection includes scripts for a myriad of purposes: play rehearsal, introducing music cues, TV and LP recording sessions and whatnot.  Some media demand their own documents, and it is fascinating to compare David Wood’s proof text for a play programme with a treatment outlining the episodes for a TV show. Being a producer himself, he meticulously kept and filed legal and technical documents about the process of putting up a play, making the collection a gold mine for researching art production, copyright law, stage design, and other fields that some researcher will think of, I’m sure!

David Wood acting on the set of 'Seeing and Doing Computers', a TV series he was commissioned to write by Thames Television to introduce primary school children to the use of computers.

 Annotated treatment for the TV series 'Seeing and Doing Computers'

Also, David Wood is definitely a note-taking, letter-sending writer. The many files of correspondence in his collection show that he exchanged messages with key figures in the British cultural scene, both on the editorial and theatrical front, as well as the occasional TV producer. We are particularly lucky in having the correspondence between David Wood and Kathleen Hale, author of the popular series about Orlando, the Marmalade Cat (which David almost adapted for the telly!), as it shows the close friendship consolidating through witty letters between the two authors.

Re-packaging and re-labeling some of David Wood's correspondence

As for the notes, they range from a quick idea scribbled on a paper bag to a fully typed diary of the day he put a play for Queen Elizabeth II’s Jubilee! I confess the five(!) boxes about The Children’s Party at the Palace, an extravaganza featuring favourite children’s lit characters on a mission to get the Queen’s lost handbag back, might be my favourite materials in the collection. They are full of fantastically wonderful ideas that got discarded, and a hilarious account of how the production resulted, among other peculiar items.

Notes and programme for the play, plus a few personal items!

 All handbags are safer when escorted by a kidlit character guard

You see it’s no wonder I got so distracted that my time with the Seven Stories Collection Team will end before we complete the story. I mean, the cataloguing process. Luckily, if anything in this post piques your interest, Kris and Danielle and the other Collection fairies will be there to show you around the Wood.

- Paula Pintos. 

If you'd like to know more about the volunteering opportunities at the Seven Stories Collection let us know via collections@sevenstories.org.uk 

If you'd like to find out more about the Seven Stories Collection, then 

email: collections@sevenstories.org.uk or phone: 0191 495 2707 or comment on this blog.

The Big Prop Shop

This week the wonderful Cathy, our Visitor Services Coordinator talks about the time she spent with us all at collections in preparation for our Rhyme around the World and Painting with Rainbows exhibitions:


My job at Seven Stories is Visitor Services Coordinator which means I spend most of my time working with the Front of House team at the Visitor Centre on Lime Street. But when we closed for refurbishment in May I had nowhere to go! So I was really excited to be asked to come and join the Collections Team whilst the builders took over Seven Stories.

Seven Stories is a museum and like any museum we collect things. These “things” are known as artefacts and the artefacts we collect and look after are original illustrations and manuscripts from British children’s books from the 1930’s to the present day. No wait, we collect more than that. We collect author’s first ideas, notes and squiggles and illustrator’s doodles and scrawls. And we collect books. We collect lots of books. But there’s no point in them hidden away in our archive, we want people to see them. So, that’s where our exhibitions come in. 

The Seven Stories Visitor’s centre has three exhibition spaces where we hang all the beautiful illustrations and display the author’s notes, scribbles and manuscripts for everyone to look at. But not only that, we also have lots of activities and props to bring the pictures and books to life. And that was my job. I had to source and buy all of the props for the Michael Foreman exhibition; Painting with Rainbows and the nursery rhyme exhibition; Rhyme Around the World. This was going to be a shopping experience of a life time.

I worked alongside Alison, our Exhibition Curator and Gill our Senior Curator. Alison gave me a list of things she wanted for the exhibitions plus a budget. The budget was very important.

One of the areas I had to work on was Michael Foreman’s childhood home, or more specifically the living room. Michael grew up during World War 2 in a house that was also the village shop so the space had to look like it was the 1940’s. I’m a bit of a vintage lover and like to dress up in clothes inspired by this period in history, so I was really excited to be given the task of recreating this space. I read his book War Boy, looked closely at all the illustrations and scrutinised the text so I could decide on what needed to be included. I also made an awful lot of notes. 

There were so many things that I wanted to get, but remember that thing called a budget? Well, that meant that I only had a certain amount of money to spend so I had to do my shopping wisely. I also had to think about all the visitors who explore our exhibitions, some of whom are very young, so everything had to be safe to use. My list of ideas was huge, but Alison and Gillian kept me in check and we decided on a Morrison Shelter with a tea set, blankets for the shelter, and an old fashioned radio. When you visit do crawl inside the shelter, you might find some other things in there too. And don’t forget to switch on the radio.

This is Cathy in her Morrison shelter recreated for our Michael Foreman exhibition

Another unusual item I had to find was a tortoise. Michael wrote a fantastic story called The Amazing Tale of Ali Pasha based on the true story of Henry Friston, a 21 year old seaman who fought in the battle of Gallipoli and befriended a tortoise, Ali Pasha. Henry managed to smuggle the tortoise on board his ship and kept him hidden during the journey home. Michael knew Henry’s son who kindly loaned Seven Stories his father’s ditty box and Ali Pasha’s shell!  You can find out all about him in the exhibition.

For the Rhyme Around the World exhibition the biggest items I had to find were a pair of thrones fit for rhyming royalty. It took a long time on Ebay before I found the beautiful pair in regal gold that you’ll find in our exhibition, complete with a snoozing cat.

One of my favourite illustrations on display in Rhyme Around the World, and that I took inspiration from, is by artist Rebecca Cobb. It’s in the area all about food. Take a good look at it. You’ll find all the items that the children are playing with in the illustration, right there in our exhibition, for all our young visitors to play with too! The prop hardest to find was a spotty tea set, but I was determined to include it.

Other props I had to find were dinosaurs, cats and kittens, scruffy dogs, miles of ribbon, astronauts suits, sea creatures, buckets and spades, an arbour, crocheted blankets, a potty, crowns and tiaras, artists smocks, flickering  light bulbs, fluffy bean bags, pretend hay bales and lots and lots of flowers.

Over the following days all these things arrived in the post and we could hardly move for boxes and parcels. Every morning I’d have more things to unwrap; it was like all my birthdays and Christmas’s had come at once.

Then Gillian, Alison and the rest of the collections team had the really hard work of turning a whole year of planning and designing into actual exhibitions in just three weeks, ready for the re-opening of Seven Stories.

Now that I’m back working in the visitor centre, I’ve had so much fun watching all our visitors dress up and play with all the props and activities and become totally immersed in the world of children’s books. 

- Cathy, 

Seven Stories' Visitor Services Coordinator

If you'd like to find out more about the Seven Stories Collection, then 

email: collections@sevenstories.org.uk or phone: 0191 495 2707 or comment on this blog.

All About: Dragons

This month's subject of our animals post is one our favourites - the dragon! We here at Seven Stories don't doubt the existence of the dragon, they are definitely a cornerstone of animals in children's books! There is also a Seven Stories touring exhibition all about dragons and Vikings currently making its way around the UK, having already visited Wolverhampton Art Gallery and Ulster Museum in Belfast, it will be showing in Kilmarnock, Norwich and Carlisle over the next year. To find out more about A Vikings Guide to Deadly Dragons with Cressida Cowell, click here.

Draft typescript for Peter Dickinson's The Flight of Dragons (Pierrot Publishing, 1979)

Our first showcase item this month is the collected correspondence, research and draft typescript from Peter Dickinson's The Flight of Dragons. This is a true gem of a book, where Dickinson deadpan's his belief in dragons, and calmly lays out the scientific basis for why dragons could have existed. The above image is a late draft of the main text of the book, where he lays his claim and sets out his thesis.

'I am not going to prove that ninety-foot lizards once floated in the skies of earth and scorched whole villages with plumes of flame, because I don't think it can be proved... But I can put together a coherent theory which is at least as probable as the theory that dragons are completely legendary.'

Extract from above image, Peter Dickinson, c. 1979

Dickinson carried out huge amounts of research for the book, some of which is evidenced within the archive. He hunted out many mythical stories, from around Britain and the rest of the world. Included was also a map of dragon myths from around the UK, including one very near Seven Stories Collection home, the Lambton Worm (less than 10 miles away!). The book covers many points in an attempt to persuade the reader of the existence of dragons, as is shown below.

'How they breathed fire, why they dieted on princesses but were able to go for such long periods between meals, what they actually used all that gold for, why Chinese dragons look different, why there are no fossils found so far, and so on.'

Extract from the first letter sent to Pierrot Publishing, outlining his idea for a new book on dragons, Peter Dickinson, 16th March 1978

The Dickinson Collection is extensive, constituting a complete record of Dickinson's work as a children's writer spanning from the 1960s until 2006, and provides information on all aspects of writing, editing and publishing books for children during the period covered. As the majority of Dickinson's children's titles were published in both America and Britain, the collection provides a great deal of information on the publication of children's books in both countries and illustrates some of the differences in attitude and approach between British and American editors and publishers. The collection also documents the relationship between the author, illustrator and publisher/editor in the production of illustrated titles, and the complications which can arise in such collaborations. 

Felt model of 'R. Dragon' from Rosemary Manning's Dragon series, c. 1980

The vast majority of the Seven Stories Collection contains 2D works, a huge amount of archive and artwork material, and so it is a treat for us to find any 3D objects lurking amongst the stacks in the store. This is a particularly beautiful handmade example of the limited number of objects in our collection. Although sadly we don't know who made this dragon, we do have a photo of Rosemary Manning holding a very similar model, and it was donated to the collection alongside rest of Manning's estate in 2007. Lis Whitelaw, the executor of the estate, said the model was created to celebrate the publishing of the final book in the series, Dragon in the Harbour, in 1980.

R. Dragon is the star of the Dragon series, the first three of which were published in the late 1950s and early 60s, and the final book, after a reasonably long hiatus, in 1980. It follows a young girl, Susan, who is on holiday at the beach when she discovers a dragon in a cave. She befriends him and he tells her many stories of his past adventures, and they occasionally go out together too. He is not the kind of dragon that goes around eating knights, or at least not any more (having lost his teeth...), and is one of the most well mannered dragons you are likely to meet after learning his manners at the court of King Arthur. He isn't a huge fan of all the tourists, but that can be counteracted by bringing him something to eat - which is why in the model above he is shown holding an almond bun!

The Manning Collection, other than model dragons, contains a collection of drafts, correspondence, and a small amount of original artwork and other associated material relating to some of her books for children. We also hold first editions of all of Manning's books for children, along with some American and foreign language editions, and inscribed first editions of several books by Catherine Storr, who was a close friend of Rosemary Manning.  

The Dragon by Archibald Marshall, illustrated by Edward Ardizzone (Hamish Hamilton, 1966)

Finally, this month’s featured book from our collection is The Dragon published in 1966. The story was first published 36 years earlier in Punch magazine, and then appeared in Archibald Marshall’s Simple stories from Punch in 1930, illustrated by George Morrow.

The quotation from the jacket flap tells us this story for children is a rather unusual version of the 'traditional tale of the beautiful princess, the dreadful dragon and the princes who came to kill it, told with several hilarious differences and the drawings of Edward Ardizzone at his wittiest.' Although Seven Stories does not hold any of the original artwork for The Dragon, fans of Edward Ardizzone might like to know that we do have artwork for two of his titles Tim in Danger, Tim and Charlotte and for Graham Greene's, The Little Train.

This copy of the The Dragon is taken from the Elaine Moss Book Collection. A personal collection - from the 1977 winner of the Eleanor Farjeon award - it consists of 773 children’s novels, picture books and books about children’s literature. Donated to Seven Stories by Moss in 2003, most were published between the 1950s and the end of 1990s, and is particularly strong in titles published in the 1970s and 1980s.

'Elaine Moss is a British critic and librarian whose work as a commentator and reviewer brought serious attention to children’s books. Moss trained as a librarian and worked as a teacher and in publishing before becoming a freelance journalist and broadcaster. As selector of the annual Children’s Books of the Year exhibition and author of the accompanying catalogue from 1970 to 1979, she played an important role in recognising the trends and talents that developed in that period. She championed the promotion of picture books to older readers, overturning the traditional restriction of picture books to children who cannot yet read.'

Julia Eccleshare in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature 

(OUP, 2006)

To find out more about the Thimble Press, with whom Moss worked regularly, click here.

If you'd like to find out more about the Seven Stories Collection, then 

email: collections@sevenstories.org.uk or phone: 0191 495 2707 or comment on this blog.

Ann numbers and remembers

We are very lucky to have some fantastic volunteers working with our collections team on our archive and book collections.  Ann is one of our regular volunteers who is helping to number our enormous and ever-growing book collection; so far, the books numbered by Ann are in the thousands and span a large number of our collections.  Not only is she a pro at wielding a 2B pencil but she is also our star at crafting purpose-made archive-standard wrappers for board books and a regular face at our Carnegie and Kate Greenaway shadowing groups.  Ann wrote us an account of her experience with our books from the Lit and Phil Collection which consists of books withdrawn from the Literary & Philosophical Society in Newcastle.

Volunteering for Seven stories you never know when the unexpected is going to hit you and send you spinning back in time to your own childhood.  My task was to number children’s books from the Lit & Phil Collection.  I had expected it to contain the usual classics Ivanhoe, Robinson Crusoe, even What Katy Did but here were Sue Barton, Student Nurse by Helen Dore Boylston, Return to the Wells by Lorna Hill and The Young Traveller series. 

The cover of the Young Traveller in Greece by Geoffrey Trease immediately transported me back to Berwick-upon-Tweed children’s library in the 1950’s eagerly clutching the latest arrival in the series.  At a time when international travel was rare, here was a way to lose oneself in the life and culture of other worlds.

Other discoveries among the Lit and Phil gems were the composer series by Opal Wheeler and Sybil Deucher published by Faber and Faber which told the lives of composers such as Haydn, Mozart and Schubert amongst others, interspersed with extracts from their music.  These were presented in an attractive way, informative but not condescending.

Reluctantly I dragged myself back to numbering 001, 002, 003…

If you'd like to know more about the volunteering opportunities at the Seven Stories Collection let us know via collections@sevenstories.org.uk 

If you'd like to find out more about the Seven Stories Collection, then 

email: collections@sevenstories.org.uk or phone: 0191 495 2707 or comment on this blog.

Beverley Naidoo Collection

Back in February something quite exciting happened at the Seven Stories archive. Late one evening, after a long drive, dozens upon dozens of crates and boxes found their way into our archive from Beverley Naidoo’s house. Beverley wrote about the experience in her blog, where you can see some of the collection in its natural habitat and can catch a glimpse of our Archivist, Kris, and Collections and Exhibitions Director, Sarah, preparing the files for their long journey to Gateshead. 

Since that day in February I have been sorting, re-packaging and cataloguing everything that Beverley gave us. The collection spans Beverley’s career from her academic work, to her first and most recent novels. Luckily for me, Beverley’s collection has been quite easy to catalogue; I can confirm that she is quite an organised author. Beverley labelled up a lot of her files in detail so I knew exactly where to start and how to order everything. All of the papers have been re-housed into archive boxes and I’ll be replacing her colourful folders  with acid-free (but cutting out and keeping all of her helpful labels).

Repackaging in progress; some of Beverley's originals files for The Other Side of Truth. 

Beverley’s collection gives a perfect snapshot into her writing process but also gives an insight into the impact of her novels.  Letters sent to Beverley from children (and adults) from all over the world span from the late eighties to 2014 and fill approximately six of our archive boxes;  these letters are fascinating, they offer an overview of attitudes to race and diversity over three decades and show just how moving and thought provoking Beverley’s novels are. 

The whole team at Seven Stories have been enthusiastic about Beverley’s collection and before I’d even managed to get everything unpacked and into archive boxes our education team were looking for original material to use in a school project with Shotton Hall Academy.  A lucky Year 8 Drama class developed a play about Beverley’s Journey to Jo’burg, and looking at the original drafts, illustration and research materials became part of their writing process. Our Learning Manager, Debbie, and I took a couple of boxes of Beverley's Journey to Jo’burg material to Shotten Hall and let the students look at and discuss the material. The students also had a chance to talk to Dave Temple who, as a local miner, was involved in anti-apartheid by supporting South African miners. It was great to see the students and Dave so engaged with the archive,  it created some great discussion points about the reality of the apartheid and human rights. I was even asked questions about archive conservation!

The big performance took place at the beginning of June and both Seven Stories and Shotton Hall were host to a very special guest.

Kris and I with Beverley and her collection in our store.

It seemed fitting that Beverley should visit our Collection team and see her archive in situ before heading to Durham to watch the play it inspired.  We spent the morning chatting to Beverley, her husband Nandha, and IBBY president for Palestine Jehan Helou, it was great to show them some material from other collections. They discovered familiar faces in photographs from the Elizabeth Laird collection and I think we managed to convince them that Beverley’s archive is in good company at Seven Stories.

Hopefully Beverley’s will be a collection that continues to grow. We see huge opportunities to use it in educational programmes and hopefully it will generate a lot of research interest. It has certainly sparked many discussions between our staff and volunteers. The whole experience has been a wonderful example of how our archive collections are currently expanding and how our collections can be used to inspire and educate.

The acquisition of Beverley's archive is part of our 'Collecting Cultures' programme and, over the coming months there will be news of other exciting additions to the Seven Stories Collections. 

If you'd like to find out more about the Seven Stories Collection, then 

email: collections@sevenstories.org.uk or phone: 0191 495 2707 or comment on this blog.

Seven Stories was able to support the acquisition of the Beverley Naidoo collection through support from a Heritage Lottery Fund ‘Collecting Cultures’ grant. This has been awarded to Seven Stories in recognition of the museum’s national role in telling a comprehensive story of modern British children’s literature. For more information on our HLF Collecting Cultures project see:  http://www.sevenstories.org.uk/news/latestnews/hlf.

All About: Rabbits

This month our feature animal is a particular favourite of this blogger*, we are going to be raving about rabbits! We will again, take a look at an illustration, archival item and a book to explore three very different elements of our collection.

The Illustrated Edition of Watership Down by Richard Adams, illustrated by John Lawrence, (Penguin Books/Kestrel Books, 1976), and Watership Down: an exhibition catalogue, (Henry Sotheran Ltd., 1982)

We could hardly start an exploration of rabbits in children's books with any other story, although through these books we discover Watership Down almost didn't get published, having been rejected by 4 publishers and 3 literary agents! This is a beautiful edition, created 4 years after its original publication in 1972, with John Lawrence illustrations in pen and ink with colour wash, and a fold out map of the warrens depicted in the story. 

This wonderful, and at times harrowing, book follows the fortunes of a band of rabbits on the edge of the imminent destruction of their home. There is a wonderful preface which really captures the spirit of the book:

 'This is a book about rabbits – real rabbits who act throughout in accordance with real rabbit behaviour and instincts. From the very first page, the reader enters the rabbit world completely, seeing things through their eyes, smelling the scents of the countryside as only an animal living in the wild can, living their terrors and their triumphs with them.'

We also discovered a thirty year old exhibition catalogue, with detailed descriptions of the all the material displayed in a special ten year anniversary exhibition of Watership Down. It has a brilliant foreword by Adams, shown below. Although we don't share this opinion of early manuscripts(!), it is fascinating to know how some authors perceive their pre publication material. At the time of writing Watership Down, Adams was a member of the British Civil Service, possibly where he got his desire to always keep letters, no matter what.

'I have never bothered much about the manuscripts…of my books.  As far as I’m concerned, they are first scratchings, full of faults, and nowhere near so exciting or satisfying as a copy of the end-product, the book…..There is a paradox here.  One throws away drafts once they’ve been typed and submitted.  One never throws away letters: one files them.  This is why all the original letters of rejection and so on relating to ‘Watership Down’ have survived intact, when they might have been expected, I suppose, to have been torn up in a rage.'

Richard Adams Watership Down: an exhibition catalogue, 1982

These books are held within the Kaye Webb Working Library collection, which runs to a staggering 2'346 books. Webb was the Editor of Puffin books during the 1960s and 70s, exerting a major influence of children's books publishing, and it is fantastically useful to have her library here at Seven Stories to complement her archive. If you would like to find out more about Kaye Webb, search the blog or click here or here.

Dummy book and wood engraving print by John Lawrence, for Rabbit and Pork (Hamish Hamilton, 1975)

During the early 1970s, John Lawrence must have spent a fair amount of time drawing rabbits, as the second item in this months series is also John Lawrence artwork! These fantastic illustrations for this unusual story showcase his distinctive engraving style, and are quite different from the above pen and ink illustrations for Watership Down. Held in the collection is a copy of the dummy book, and two final black and white prints. The story follows the adventures of our heroes, Rabbit and Pork, including various criminal activities, but all told in the format of descriptive cockney rhyming slang!

In the above image, the change from dummy book to final artwork style is quite dramatic. We have many examples of dummy books within the collection, and this is a particularly well detailed one, in full colour throughout, suggesting it was possibly created later in the process, and near to having the final story. In the printed book, the story remains mostly faithful to the dummy, although there are frequent changes in page layout, possibly due to the change in medium from painting to wood engraving. 

The John Lawrence Collection held at Seven Stories shows a wide variation in his artwork style, from pen and ink drawings, watercolour, to layered wood engravings. Amongst several other books, we hold work by Lawrence for three Robert Westall titles (happily complementing our large Westall Collection), two books with Philip Pullman (Lyra's Oxford  and Once Upon a Time in the North, also complementing our Pullman Collection, which holds material for other books in the Northern Lights universe), and our newest acquisition - Wayland, written by Tony Mitton (for which we also have ANOTHER complementary collection of the work of Tony Mitton, including two notebooks in which he wrote the text for this book).

Also, for those who haven't yet twigged, 'rabbit and pork' is cockney rhyming slang for 'talk'!

Correspondence between Treld Bicknell of Pan Books, and Faith Jaques, 1981 and 1982. 

Today's final example is taken from the archive of Faith Jaques, a dedicated illustrator with a long career in children's books. Here we have two (of several) letters between herself and her editor, Treld Bicknell of Pan Books, throughout the early 1980s. They refer to Jaques' new illustrations for a collection of Little Grey Rabbit stories by Alison Uttley, Tales of Little Grey Rabbit. They had originally been illustrated by Margaret Tempest, but had been out of print for some time. A note contained in one of the books in our collection tells us that the original artwork by Tempest had been lost, and the original printings weren't suitable for reproduction, being too 'dingy' to compete with other children's books on the market at the time. The tales contain - The Squirrel, the Hare and the Little Grey Rabbit, How Little Grey Rabbit Got Back Her Tail, The Great Adventure of Hare and The Story of Fuzzypeg the Hedgehog. All these stories were originally published between 1929 and 1932, and are amongst Uttley's most well known books.

What comes across very clearly in the letters above is Jaques commitment to securing better rights for illustrators, particularly around image copyright. She has obviously written to the publisher to confirm she will be credited appropriately, and be given the right copyright line in the new editions. Sometimes illustrators would not be credited at all, or not be paid lending fees from libraries. It is also interesting to read that she is confirming her rights to sell the artwork from the book; for many years some publishers kept the original works of art themselves. Later in the series of letters, ironically, it turns out that there have been issues returning the artwork, and she only just received her work back in February 1983, two years after originally sending it. It is also interesting to note that over time, Tempest's original illustrations of the stories have been lost completely (if anyone does know of their whereabouts, it would be fascinating to hear!).

The Faith Jaques Collection also comprises a beautiful collection of printed books, her working reference library with many much older than our usual collecting period. We also hold illustration work for more than 50 of her books, varying between final illustrations, alternative illustrations, proof copies, dummies and sketches. These include original alternative drawings for the first UK edition of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The archive also holds a series of correspondence and notes about the campaign for Public Lending Rights in libraries, and a small amount of personal papers and ephemera. 

If you'd like to find out more about the Seven Stories Collection, then 

email: collections@sevenstories.org.uk or phone: 0191 495 2707 or comment on this blog.

*Full disclosure, I have two wonderful, and slightly pesky, rabbits - Mac and Horatio!

Collecting Cultures update

Avid readers of the Seven Stories Collections Blog may have noticed that so far this year little mention has been made of any new acquisitions to our Collection. This is by no means a reflection of our collecting activity this year. On the contrary, we’re very happy to say that we’ve been making and planning some very exciting new acquisitions under the first part of our HLF Collecting Cultures project.

Photograph by Damian Wootten for Seven Stories, National Centre for Children's Books

Some of you may be aware that towards the end of last year we were delighted to announce that Seven Stories had been awarded a grant of £341,500 as part of the Heritage Lottery Fund Collecting Cultures programme – designed to enable a range of museums across the country to enhance their collections through the purchase of new material. This substantial grant will help us to build on our already internationally significant Collection of archives and books (you can read our original announcement here: http://www.sevenstories.org.uk/news/latestnews/hlf).

Photograph by Damian Wootten for Seven Stories, National Centre for Children's Books

In the 1990s, when Seven Stories (then known as the Centre for the Children’s Book) began collecting the archives of children’s authors and illustrators, our mission was simple – to protect Britain’s heritage of children’s books for this and future generations. At this time, manuscripts and illustrations of some of Britain’s most influential authors and illustrators were being sold overseas – dispersed among various institutions and private collections. Nowhere was there a place where the rich history of British children’s books could be celebrated, shared and explored. To rectify this, Seven Stories co-founders Elizabeth Hammill and Mary Briggs, with the help of many authors, illustrators, publishers, teachers and librarians, set out to establish an archive of British children’s literature.

Since then the Collection at Seven Stories has grown immensely and now represents one of the richest resources for the study of children’s literature in the world. The archive represents the work of over 180 authors, illustrators, editors, and publishers. Our book collection includes over 35,000 volumes, including numerous rare and unique titles.

Photograph by Damian Wootten for Seven Stories, National Centre for Children's Books

As the Seven Stories Collection has grown we have found ourselves faced with questions of how to ensure our Collection tells fully the story of British children’s literature. How should we go about building a Collection that represents all of the different elements and facets of such a diverse topic as writing for children? How can we try to ensure that the work of the many writers, illustrators, publishers and editors who have shaped childhood reading habits can be celebrated and shared? How do we make sure that the experiences of child readers over almost a century can be explored and understood?

Our generous Collecting Cultures grant offers us the very unique opportunity to strategically address these questions, building and strengthening our already world-class Collection, enhancing its scope and breadth, and acquiring material by yet more world class illustrators and writers. Throughout the project we will develop three specific areas in our Collection: poetry, picture books and children’s fiction from 1930 – 2000. We will also collect work which reflects social and cultural diversity.

Photograph by Damian Wootten for Seven Stories, National Centre for Children's Books

So far the Collecting Cultures project has brought some fantastic new collections to the Seven Stories archive and we have many very exciting acquisitions on the horizon. We’ll be announcing these over the coming months so keep an eye on the Collections blog for the latest news.