'The Happy Hedgehog Band'

Archive Unit
  • This material is held at
  • Reference
      GB 1840 JBa/01
  • Dates of Creation
      c 1991
  • Physical Description
      2 files

Scope and Content

Preliminary and finished artwork by Jill Barton for 'The Happy Hedgehog Band', written by Martin Waddell (Walker, 1991).

Note

At the time of deposit, Jill Barton provided the following contextual note with the artwork for 'The Happy Hedgehog Band': "This was my second picture book, the first was 'Grape Zoo' by Ivor Cutler. I have included an early characterisation sketch [see file JBa/01/01] which I took into Walker Books and wit which I was taught a salutary lesson. David Lloyd looked at it for a short while and them came out with his judgement...'TWEE'. He said a children's book should take place like a play before the reader's eyes. That I must absorb the words. DEEP IN THE HEART of Dickon Wood lived a HAPPY hedgehog named Harry. I went away to lick my wounds for a short while and came back with the first page as you see it now. Lesson learned! When I was doing the artwork I didn't realise that the sounds would be added later. Had I known, I would have tried to leave a little more 'air' for them, however the art editor, Helen Read, handled a difficult challenge very well. The children [school children that Barton showed the original artwork] know, of course, about foreign editions and why there is rarely writing on the artwork."

Related Material

For draft material relating to the writing of 'The Happy Hedgehog Band', see the Martin Waddell Collection, files MW/01/25 and MW/02/10.