Mary Gernat was a British illustrator, known for her designs for the covers of paperback books by Enid Blyton, Frank Richards and others.

Biography

Gernat was born in

Ewell Ewell ( , ) is a suburban area with a village centre in the borough of Epsom and Ewell in Surrey, approximately south of central London and northeast of Epsom. In the 2011 Census, the settlement had a population of 34,872, a majority of wh ...

, Surrey, 1926, and underwent training at the

Central School of Arts and Crafts The Central School of Art and Design was a public school of fine and applied arts in London, England. It offered foundation and degree level courses. It was established in 1896 by the London County Council as the Central School of Arts and Cr ...

and

Regent Street Polytechnic The University of Westminster is a public university, public university based in London, United Kingdom. Founded in 1838 as the Royal Polytechnic Institution, it was the first Polytechnic (United Kingdom), polytechnic to open in London. The Polyte ...

. Much of her work was for

Armada Books Armada Books was a British publishing imprint that used to publish paperback titles from 1962 until 1995. Created by Gordon Landsborough as the paperback imprint of May Fair Books May is the fifth month of the year in the Julian and Gregoria ...

. She also produced

dust jacket The dust jacket (sometimes book jacket, dust wrapper or dust cover) of a book is the detachable outer cover, usually made of paper and printed with text and illustrations. This outer cover has folded flaps that hold it to the front and back book ...

designs for some hardback editions, and covers for magazines such as ''

The Tatler ''Tatler'' is a British magazine published by Condé Nast Publications focusing on fashion and lifestyle, as well as coverage of high society and politics. It is targeted towards the British upper-middle class and upper class, and those interes ...

''. She married Michael How, an engineer, in 1953. She had four sons, whom she used as models for her designs, and much later a daughter. From 1963 the family lived in Milford on Sea, and in 1970 they moved to

Lymington Lymington is a port town on the west bank of the Lymington River on the Solent, in the New Forest district of Hampshire, England. It faces Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, to which there is a car ferry service operated by Wightlink. It is within the ...

. In later life she developed

multiple sclerosis Multiple (cerebral) sclerosis (MS), also known as encephalomyelitis disseminata or disseminated sclerosis, is the most common demyelinating disease, in which the insulating covers of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord are damaged. This d ...

and after ceasing to paint professionally, continued to do so for pleasure. She died in 1998. In May 2019, 120 of her paintings and sketches were shown on the

BBC Television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 193 ...

programme ''

Antiques Roadshow ''Antiques Roadshow'' is a British television programme broadcast by the BBC in which antiques appraisers travel to various regions of the United Kingdom (and occasionally in other countries) to appraise antiques brought in by local people (g ...

'' by one of her sons, in whose possession they remain.

Book cover designs

Among the books whose covers were designed by Gernat were: * A number by

Enid Blyton Enid Mary Blyton (11 August 1897 – 28 November 1968) was an English children's writer, whose books have been worldwide bestsellers since the 1930s, selling more than 600 million copies. Her books are still enormously popular and have be ...

* Books by Frank Richards in the

Billy Bunter William George Bunter is a fictional schoolboy created by Charles Hamilton using the pen name Frank Richards. He features in stories set at Greyfriars School, a fictional English public school in Kent, originally published in the boys' weekly ...

series * Books by

Richmal Crompton Richmal Crompton Lamburn (15 November 1890 – 11 January 1969) was a popular English writer, best known for her ''Just William'' series of books, humorous short stories, and to a lesser extent adult fiction books. Life Richmal Crompton Lambu ...

'Jimmy' series * David Whitaker '' Doctor Who and the Crusaders'' - and early Doctor Who spin-off book *

Malcolm Saville Leonard Malcolm Saville (21 February 1901–30 June 1982)
Retrieved 16 July 2016 was an English writer best known for the ...

: ''The Sign of the Alpine Rose'' (1963) * Books by

Monica Edwards Monica Edwards (née Monica le Doux Newton; 8 November 1912 – 18 January 1998) was an English children's writer of the mid-twentieth century best known for her Romney Marsh and Punchbowl Farm series of children's novels. Early life She was ...

* Sheila K. McCullagh's Griffin Pirate Stories (also known as The Griffin Readers in original editions) that were published by EJ Arnold & Sons Limited for reading in primary/infant schools from the 1950s through to the late 1980s.

References

External links

Family photograph of Gernat

Facebook page about Gerant
run by her son Roger How
Enid Blyton Society page
on Gernat
''World of Blyton'' blog posts
about Gernat {{DEFAULTSORT:Gernat, Mary 1926 births 1998 deaths 20th-century English painters 20th-century English women artists Alumni of the Central School of Art and Design Alumni of the University of Westminster English illustrators English women painters People from Ewell People from Lymington People with multiple sclerosis