Dorothy M. Wheeler

Image courtesy of the Enid Blyton Society

Image courtesy of the Enid Blyton Society

I've always been interested in children's illustrators and my all time favourite will always be Margaret Tarrant. However, Dorothy M Wheeler is a recent discovery and her illustrations of Enid Blyton’s books are adorable. The large image above is her cover for The Folk of the Faraway Tree and I remember reading this for the first time when I was about seven or eight and stuck in bed with measles. It is a story bursting with silliness and magic but essentially about friendship and learning to give second chances. The copy I still have is a much more garish [yet lovely] 1960s edition but I do love Wheeler’s version and [ahem!] the real reason for this post is perched halfway up the tree in all his bushy tailed GLORY. I remember in the book that the red squirrel’s job was to collect all the cushions from the foot of the slide [at the base of the tree] in a big basket and carry them back up to the top so everyone could use them to slide down – the slide spiralled down through the inside of the tree trunk. Well, I love him to bits and also love that Wheeler popped little squirrels into quite a lot of her pictures [see utterly cute example] so watch this space as I may well post more of her squirrel work J