We were all extremely saddened when we heard that John Ryan, one of the illustrators exhibiting in the Fidra Gallery, passed away on Wednesday of this week. Ryan was born in Edinburgh in 1921, but as a child spent time in the Moroccan port of Rabat – it was here that his fascination with pirates developed. He later attended Ampleforth College in Yorkshire where his talent for drawing was encouraged by a member of staff. All this in turn lead to the creation of perhaps the nation’s best – loved pirate: Captain Horatio Pugwash, who ‘appeared’ one day whilst Ryan was sketching. Originally a comic strip in boys’ magazine Eagle, in 1957 Pugwash appeared in his first children’s book: Captain Pugwash: A Pirate Story, published by Bodley Head and a BBC series was created in the same year. This was just the start of Ryan’s long and successful career as an illustrator, cartoonist and animator.

Ryan married in 1950 and is survived by his wife Pricsilla, his three children and their families. Our thoughts and sympathies are with them at this sad time. The original Pugwash books have recently been republished by Frances Lincoln, with more to follow next year.

Obituaries
The Telegraph
The Scotsman
BBC

Other Sites
Pugwash Author’s Legacy
Wikipedia

In the meantime though, you might like to read this article. It was in The Scotsman’s Critique section last Saturday and is a lovely piece about illustration and how as as medium it is gradually over-coming the snobbery of the fine art establishment. It’s mostly about Catherine’s recent Kate Greenaway Medal and there are some comments from Anthony Browne, the new Children’s Laureate. There’s also lots about the Gallery and I even manage to sound as though I know what I’m talking about which is a bonus.

We are delighted to be able to tell any readers who haven’t seen the latest news from the Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medal awards – probably the most prestigious UK awards – that Edinburgh illustrator, and loyal supporter of The Children’s Bookshop and the Fidra Gallery, Catherine Rayner has won this year’s Kate Greenaway Medal for her marvellous book Harris Finds His Feet. If you follow this link you can see her speech at the awards ceremony yesterday.

We’re huge fans of Catherine’s work and the painting from her latest book, Sylvia and Bird, that we bought at a show before Christmas is one of our most prized possessions. We’ve also just been sent a blad of her forthcoming title, Ernest and it’s equally marvellous and will help to build her reputation as one of the most imaginative illustrators and storytellers around. Cat’s sending work to our summer exhibition where I’m sure it will be very popular with customers, if only I can be firm and remind myself that I can’t keep all of the wonderful work that’s arriving every day!

My father-in-law, ex Vice Principal of the art school where Catherine trained, is not a man to praise work lightly and he summed up Cat’s work perfectly when he said that she had a wonderful way of drawing animals and giving them characters and personalities without a hint of twee-ness.