I thought today I'd introduce you to my all time favourite set of story books. They are called Orlando (The Marmalade Cat) and I still own every one that I had given to me as a child. The star of the stories is of course Orlando "with eyes like twin gooseberries" and he is accompanied on his adventures by his loving wife Grace and three kittens: Blanche, Tinkle and Pansy. They get up to all sorts of things from buying a cottage to owning and running a department store and fighting off cat nappers. The stories are a delight of course but it is the drawings that mesmerise me in their loveliness! To say I adore them would be an extreme understatement! They are brim full of characters with personalities the sizes of small planets that have been drawn in such a way as to suggest they are real "people" she knew! There's also family and friendship and love and loyalty - all those terrific things you want to teach your children about.
The person responsible for these wonderful books was Kathleen Hale who was an English artist and illustrator who later wrote these books in the 1940s and 1950s as a way to entertain her two young sons. Kathleen was born in 1898 and died at the age of 101 in 2000.I remember seeing her obituary in the paper and feeling quite sad and melancholy at her passing. However, I was pleased to read she had been awarded an OBE in 1976 because of her contribution to children's literature as the creator of the Orlando books.
So! I was not alone in my love of Orlando! When I was at school, none of my friends had read him and I've yet to meet an Orlando fan - he must be bigger in his home country than he is in the colonies!
Above is a scene from "Orlando Buys a Cottage" as is the drawing below with the family in the hammock. The drawing with the large poodle called Bill is from "The Frisky Housewife"
Orlando! I remember from when I was young! I remember the orange cat :-))
Posted by: Marjorie | January 14, 2009 at 05:06 AM
What gorgeous illustrations:)
I grew up in England but I do not remember them, as a collector of children's books I missed something special!
Wendy x
Posted by: wendy | January 14, 2009 at 08:04 AM
Oh those illustrations are so lovely!! I have to hunt them down!!
Posted by: Gabrielle Adamidis | January 14, 2009 at 08:24 AM
I love her work dear Sam. No wonder your illustraions are so awesome, you've been getting inspiration since your childhood :) Please do visit my blog so you can see your girls and how they made it to California safe and sound!
Posted by: Gabbi | January 14, 2009 at 07:20 PM
Never knew 'Orlando The Marmalade Cat' before, great drawings! What gorgeous colours.
Posted by: Michiko | January 15, 2009 at 08:54 PM
The Orlando books are really special, they're some of our favourites too .
Posted by: Kate Banazi | January 31, 2009 at 05:08 PM