posted on 19 Aug 2016

The Magic of Coal by Peggy. M. Hart : A Puffin Picture Book

Soon after Allen Lane had established Penguin paperback books as a viable concern, Noel Carrington, who had been an editor at the Oxford University Press, persuaded him to create a colourful collection of illustrated books for children which was to be marketed under the name of Puffin. These Puffin Picture Books started life in 1940 and ended in 1965 after 120 editions.

The books were about twice the format size of an ordinary Penguin but with far fewer pages - about 32 and very highly illustrated. They were targeted at readers aged between 7 – 14 and were designed not to be patronising in content and tone – authors and illustrators were carefully selected for their expertise in the subject area the book was about.

The series was hugely popular and ended up being translated into a range of different languages and, by the end, covered a huge range of non-fiction topics as well as some popular fictional characters such as Orlando the Marmalade Cat.

The Magic of Coal was written and illustrated by Peggy M. Hart – about whom I know nothing at all - who is clearly a talented artist very influenced by contemporaries like Edward Bawden and even Russian children’s book illustration. Published in 1945, the booklet comes only a year before the nationalisation of the coal industry and the creation of the National Coal Board and the National Union of Mineworkers but the content is not at all concerned with the politics of coal. The focus is entirely on an easy explanation of the process of coal extraction and the roles of the various miners at different stages of the mining process. She broadly follows a chronological format from the moment the miner leaves home for work right through to the final use of coal and just how dependent social structures and facilities are on this essential fuel.

This booklet is now essentially a historical document in a country that has effectively closed down all of its coal industry and the small rump of activity that is left is mechanised beyond anything Peggy Hart could have imagined. Gone too are the ways of life and the communities she depicts or hints at in her illustration. What we see in this beautiful booklet is a design masterpiece within which is embedded a bubble of history that we will never see again.

 

Terry Potter

August 2016