Blyton's Inspiration

The real life children who inspired Enid Blyton's legendary Famous Five covers have been revealed for the first time.

16:27 19 November 2015

Mary Gernat, the artist behind Enid Blyton's legendary Famous Five covers, used her four young sons - Roger, Frances, Nicholas, and Justin as models for the iconic quintet. An archive of her work, which include never-before-seen photographs and drawings, has now finally emerged.

 

Her second son Roger, now 58, found them in the attic of his father's house. He is now planning to exhibit his late mother's work.

 

Roger said: "We were the perfect age to be her subjects; I was about four or five and my older brother Francis must have been about nine.

 

"She would ask us to pose like we were pulling on a rope, or firing a bow and arrow. We weren't given a rope or a bow, we just had to go through the actions, pretending.

 

"She worked very quickly so we never had to pose for long and she would give us a penny or a halfpenny as pocket money.

 

"My mother was a natural artist. She would draw a few quick lines in a couple of minutes and that was all she needed to work from.

 

"At the time we were just kids and didn't realise the importance of what she was doing.

 

"Now I appreciate she was actually a very good artist.

 

"But none of the children on the finished book covers look like us, we were just recreating the poses she wanted.