Mabel Lucie Attwell

This is an illustrated biography of possibly this century’s best loved illustrator who flourished in the ’20s and ’30s. She achieved world-wide success and her postcards were exported to almost every country in the world. A single design could sell up to half a million copies in one month. Sustained commercial success of this size is a publishing phenomenon. It is partly explained by the universal appeal of childhood’s pretty innocence which she was so adept at portraying but it had perhaps more to do with the fact that she drew adults as children. I am mixed up with children, she wrote, but I draw for adults. Her distinctive style is to be found in books, postcards, posters, toys and advertisements. She was to be chosen by J.M. Barrie to illustrate his bestseller, Peter Pan in 1921. The chubby red-cheeked faces of her children that were her hallmark are unmistakable and are as well know today as ever. The book contains extensive, large colour illustrations from all periods of her long