(no subject)

[geebengrrl.livejournal.com]

I was wondering what people thought of the cover art on the books (and the illustrations in some of them)? I always think of Nicola and Lawrie as looking like the Marjory Gill illustrations - all big eyes and long thin legs - I think because the first of the books I read was the Puffin edition of End Of Term. I also liked the Toulouse-Lautrec-ish illustrations on some of the later dustjackets (like these ones for The Thuggery Affair and Ready Made Family) - though I could never conceive of Nicola having the mullet hairstyle the illustrator has given her on the RMF jacket.

The ones I definitely don't like are the Faber ones from the 70's, with the floating heads and strange objects in the background - they look like an ill-conceived attempt to tap into the fantasy-fic market. The re-issued Faber version of Autumn Term is pretty, but doesn't look very Marlow to me. The American edition has the same cover that I remember ont he hardback in my school library.

Also, my copy of The Marlows and the Traitor has illustrations inside which make the four younger Marlows look very very much younger than I prefer to imagine them. Does anyone know if any of the other books were illustrated?

Anyway, over to you - do the Marlows in your head look like the Marlows on the dustjackets? Do you prefer one illustrator over another? Do you think cover-art is important? Has anyone managed to collect a full set with matching jackets?

Comments

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

I have:

Autumn Term. Faber hardback with scribbly red and blue cover with Nicola and Lawrie sitting on a desk with Tim behind it. This really looks like Tim, to me, but not so much like the twins - they have weird, very-turned-up noses.

I'm completely blanking on what the covers of Traitor and Falconer's Lure look like - they're the GGB ones.

End Of Term. Faber hardback with scribbly blue and brown cover. I think it's supposed to be Nicola with Sprog on the cover, but for some reason it looks a lot more how I imagine Miranda.

Peter's Room. Faber Fanfare with strangely heavy-browed Patrick and agitated Ginty on the cover. This is pretty much how I imagine Ginty, but not Patrick, really.

The Thuggery Affair. GGBP paperback with seated person, possibly Peter, Patrick or one of the Thuggery?

The Ready-Made Family. Hardback with the 'mullet' picture on the front. Don't like this at all - the mullet person looks like they could conceivably be Lawrie playing Sophia Lawrence, but that's from the wrong book!

The Cricket Term. The original hardback I had had a strangely young and pudgy-faced Nicola sitting on a roof with Jan behind her. Not how I imagine her at all. Unfortunately I have no idea where that book went. I think the paperback I've got now has a cricket scene on the front, but I'm not too sure.

The Attic Term. Faber hardback with scribbly white, green and blue cover with Ginty looking even more agitated and woebegone than she did on the cover of Peter's Room. Actually, I suppose it could be Nicola, but I've always assumed it was Ginty.

Run Away Home. GGBP with a boat on the front. I don't know enough about boats to know whether it's accurate or not.

Actually, the Marlows in my head aren't even much like the Marlows in the text at times, let alone the ones on the covers - I know Rowan's supposed to have curly hair, but I just can't seem to picture her that way.

[richenda.livejournal.com]

Peter's Room. Faber Fanfare with strangely heavy-browed Patrick and agitated Ginty on the cover. This is pretty much how I imagine Ginty, but not Patrick, really.

Hasn't yours got the Gondal riders in the background? That's what I like about it - the line drawings of the real youngsters are a good contrast to the silhouetted ricers

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

I forgot about the Gondal riders! I like the colours on that cover much better than the yellow and green Faber ones, which always look a bit sickly to me.

[richenda.livejournal.com]

Autumn term - 1977 Puffin
three leggy schoolgirls in foreground, school building, other schoolgirls moving in background
Margery Gill

I like it

End of term Undated Puffin
Two schoolgirls by notice board, one covering face with hands – Tim and Lawrie?
Margery Gill

I like it, but why are they differently dressed – one in jumper and skirt and the other in blouse and gymmy?


Cricket Term Puffin 1974
Nicky and Miranda on steps, Nicky doing the Marlow thing with pen and paper?
Margery Gill

I like it


Attic Term Puffin 1985
Ginty on phone with desk lamp, looking at paper
Chris Molan

Weird and sinister in red and orange – I don’t like it, but perhaps not meant to?


RMF
Thuggery Affair
Peter’s Room

Fanfare Fabers – but I can’t see any strange objects.
PR has the mounted adventurers of their imagination behind a boy and girl – Patrick and Ginty?
RMF has the RMF – Chas in front looking worried, girls behind, turned away, all apprehensive-looking
Thuggery has girl and boy (Lawrie and Peter?), someone else’s gloved hand with falcon (Patrick?)
Look s more like Falconer’s Lure – why no pigeon?
Dave Griffiths

I like them


Traitor plain Faber (not Fanfare)

Front Lighthouse
Back Children in cellar with traitor – line drawing. Peter looks too young
Other line drawings throughout
Doriie Ketlewell

I like them


Falconer’s GGB

I like it


RAH

Dinghy on front - sail looks a bit odd, but I’ve never done sea sailing

I like it

[minniemoll.livejournal.com]

End of term Undated Puffin
Two schoolgirls by notice board, one covering face with hands – Tim and Lawrie?
Margery Gill

It's Nicola and Lawrie, just after Lawrie has insisted on double-checking the notice board to prove that it's her and not Nicola who is down for the shepherd boy.... Which explains the different clothes, Nicola (I think) has changed for the evening when Lawrie arrives in the dormitory still in her day uniform.

I like the Margery Gill covers for the early Puffin pbs, and I don't mind Run Away Home, but the rest of the hardbacks are more or less pretty dreadful in my opinion, it's one of the few series where I have no desire to spend huge amounts upgrading to hardbacks. I have four matching Puffin pbs and the rest in GGB editions.

[richenda.livejournal.com]

Yes, of course - I recognized the face in hands - and of course it's Nicola not Tim - Tim doesnt join the discussion until much later.

And clothes - yes- I see now that it's a pinafore dress and buttoned jersey, not a gymmie and blouse. Mind you - that's still odd - we all avoided pinafore dresses because they were too gymmie like. (We wore gymmies all day, not just for PE. We wore shorts and aertex blouses for PE.)

[owl]

Wasn't the supper dress part of the uniform? They all call it 'dreggy' in Attic Term. So it could be pretty hideous and day-uniform-like.

[liadnan]

Did Puffin use anyone but Gill in the 60s and 70s?

[forester48.livejournal.com]

As far as the illustrations tallying with how I imagine the Marlows to look the only dust jacket that does it for me is The Autumn Term one in reds and blacks with the twins and Tim on the front.
I have to have Rowan and Peter with dark straight hair even though it's wrong it's just the image I have. The twins and Karen have thick straightish very fair hair in my mind. Giles,Ann and Ginty have curly blond hair more towards the golden. As far as thinness goes I see Giles,Peter and Rowan as quite sturdy, Ginty rounded (might get quite plump later on but in an attractive way). Karen is tall, a bit like Claire Goose, the TV actress, Ann wears glasses (conscientiously) for reading and watching television, the twins are a bit awkward looking at the moment but will end up looking like Karen (and Claire Goose). They all have dark blue eyes apart from Ann whose eyes are paler and Ginty who has slatey coloured ones.Rowan and Peter are olivey skinned,Giles,Ginty and Ann pinkish and the twins and Karen, pale.

[owl]

I have the Puffin versions of the first three school books, the GGB editions of the holiday books, and the weird firelit-looking cover of Attic Term with Ginty.

Is there a Majorie Gill cover for Attic Term? What's it like?

[tabouli.livejournal.com]

Weirdly enough, it has the very last scene in the book on it: Nicola and Miranda on the roof, with Nicola sitting on the balustrade and Miranda presenting her with the badly wrapped parcel. Both are in blue coats with red scarves; Miranda's hair is short and dark and kicks up at the neck, Nicola's is collar-length and blonde and straggly.

[owl]

You wouldn't care to provide a scan, would you?

[owl]

Hmm, what they look like? I see them all as blond and blue-eyed and fairly thin. Peter and the twins are smallish and gawky (probably because they all have to be born prematurely to be the right ages :-P), with very straight, fine hair, rather cow-licked, especially Peter's. I see Ginty as a blonde green-eyed version of Natalie Portman, slim and light-boned, with curly hair down past her chin. Rowan's hair is similar, but cut in a very short bob. She's more athletic, but not very tall. Ann is stockier and more rounded. Karen is tall and thin, and is still getting used to her height. Her hair is straight and down past her shoulders. Giles I see as tallish, with curly hair that he keeps pretty short. Definitely good-looking. I think that he tried to grow a full set once, out in the Atlantic or somewhere far, far from his siblings, but to his horror it turned out ginger, and he shaved it off again. :)
Captain Marlow I see as having a naval-ish beard, actually, and looking like an older, tougher version of Giles. Mrs Marlow I see with a sort of 50s-type do, which tends to come apart when she's going frantic over her errant offspring. She looks like a plumper, older Rowan.