The Illustrations of Georgina Hargreaves

Georgina Hargreaves was born in Bolton, Lancashire, where she attended Bolton Art School. After spending several years in Canada, she returned and began working with Dean & Son, her work mainly consisted of illustrating many children's classics, including Peter Pan, Heidi and Oliver Twist.

Originally during 1979, twins Janet and Anne Grahame Johnstone (I'll talk more about them later!) illustrated an edition of Enid Blyton's The Enchanted Wood; which is still highly collectable today. Sadly, Janet died that same year, so Anne did not continue working on this particular project.

Instead, Georgina Hargreaves went on to illustrate the titles of The Magic Faraway Tree Series, The Wishing Chair Series, The Little Witch Dog and The Green Elf. Her illustrations are some of the most famous to date - so I thought I'd share my big hardcover books with you.

 The editions I have are from 2004 published by Hinkler Books and they were part of a set called The Enid Blyton Classics Series. I do have The Enchanted Wood, but since its illustrated by Anne and Janet Grahame Johnstone, I shall talk about it later on.

The above image comes from The Magic Faraway Tree, Saucepan Man  has accidentally mistaken The Land of Toys for The Land of Goodies and gets himself arrested, so Silky, Moonface, Jo, Bessie and Fannie must venture up the tree to save him. 

There's something beautiful about her illustrations. Just the way the feel so detailed, and yet not to heavy. 

I absolutely adore this picture of the fairy in The Folk of the Faraway Tree.

This is from The Wishing Chair. The above image is quite iconic, as its often use for the cover for Hargreaves set. I love the way you can see the sunlight breaking through the clouds overhead and the tiny little stars twinkling over the sleepy old town.

I'll stop there. The last image I showed, I just fine absolutely gorgeous, I love her use of colour.
Don't you just love Enid Blyton?
Thank you for listening once again, feel free to comment, I can't wait to read them!

Next Time: The Golden Children's Bible