Molly Brett
MOLLY BRETT (born: Mary Elizabeth Brett)
The daughter of the noted animal painter Mary Gould Brett, Molly was born in 1912 and brought up in a country district of Surrey. She had little formal training but after taking a correspondence course she started illustrating and writing children's books.
She wrote and illustrated more than sixteen books for the Medici Society and illustrated many other books,
however, here we are most interested in the books she illustrated for Enid Blyton. There are thirteen in total, all published by Brockhampton press between 1951 and 1961.
Five titles are in the Little Book Series:
The Proud Golliwog (no. 3)
The Mad Teapot (no. 8)
Visitors in the Night (no. 14)
What a Surprise (no. 15)
The Golliwog Grumbled (no. 17)
These are little square format books with pictorial card covers and charming colour illustrations. The series comprised of 18 titles in total which were published between 1941 and 1955.
The other eight books are a series of small oblong strip books, delightfully illustrated with black and red pictures. The stories are about a clockwork clown. We learn from the first book in the series, entitled Clicky The Clockwork Clown, that he is built from wood by a brownie and then dressed by the brownie wife. He is then wound up by means of the back door key of the brownie house. When he asks "What's my name? I MUST have a name, you know. What is it?", the brownie replies "Well - you make a clicking noise when you walk. So your name is Clicky"!
Clicky continues his adventures in a further seven books in the series, these are:
Clicky the Clown at the Circus
Clicky goes to Toyland
Clicky and Father Christmas
Clicky and the Flying horse
Clicky gets into trouble
Clicky and Tiptoe
Happy Holiday Clicky
During her career Molly Brett produced many pictures, postcards and greeting cards and was at various times a member of the Society of Authors, Women's Institute, the Local Lunch Club and Art Society. She died in 1990.
(Published on 30th Oct 2015 )
