Moheard's Blog

It was wonderful serendipity to meet a lovely local lady, Denise Hoyle a few years ago. She is the widow of artist Walter Hoyle, who knew and worked with the artists living in Great Bardfield during the 1950s. I have a book published by Previous Parrot Press by Walter Hoyle, To Sicily with Edward Bawden – again that fleeting connection. Denise, whose work has a gentle naivety, paints charming pictures of delicate flowers and creates fantastical pottery.  My daughter Louise was so struck by what she saw that she put on an exhibition for Denise; I bought a small picture of a bunch of flowers set in one of those souvenir Victorian mugs, with A Present from Hastings round the side. I love these mugs and have a small collection; Leo’s mum collects similar mugs but with the motif A Present from Ramsgate — and one of them has a mysterious part to play in the book…….

I saw Baby Puffins (‘fiendishly rare’) in an antiquarian book catalogue recently, going for nearly £298 each! I bought mine in a Blackheath junk shop many years ago for 10p each. Ha! They’re a bit frayed around the edges though.These were nos. 1 & 2 in the series produced by Noel Carrington from the 1940s.

Does anyone know anything about the illustrator Dorothy Chapman? I have tried to find out but with no luck.

Noel Carrington, the editor of Country Life in the 30s, commissioned wonderful illustrations for Puffin Books from established artists, and I wanted my book to have that same feel for visual excellence. This is why I asked a friend, Val Falla if she would create the pictures for Leo’s Heroes with a whiff of 50s nostalgia. She had studied illustration at the Royal College of Art under Edward Bawden whose influence is evident in a lot of her work. I am thrilled at the connection.

See her gallery of work at http://www.val-bob-falla.org

I really, really wanted designed end papers, but alas, too expensive.