posted on 16 Aug 2018

Classic Covers : The Fair To Middling illustrated by Raymond Briggs

Arthur Calder-Marshall’s The Fair To Middling  was published in 1959 and boasted a jacket that was designed and illustrated by the brilliant Raymond Briggs (see here for a longer appreciation of Briggs’ work). The commission from the publishing house of Rupert Hart-Davis came just a year after he became a professional illustrator and before he had published anything under his own name. Work on book jackets was important to Briggs at this point in his career and there are several otherwise forgotten children’s titles out there that have his jackets and which are lifted out of the ordinary by their inventiveness.

I think it’s fair to say that Calder-Marshall’s remarkable story of a devilish or demonic travelling fair that is visited by a school for children with disabilities is something of a cult classic. It is not widely known or read ( and never has been) but to those who count themselves initiated, it is a book that inspires fierce dedication and, for me at least, part of its mystique is the fabulous Briggs jacket.

The dominant background colour for both the front and back of the jacket is a sky blue which is the augmented on the front top and bottom by a furling pink banner that stretches out onto the spine. The top pink banner carries the name of the book and the bottom one has the author’s name in white lettering. The effect of these two banners – one of which seems to be attached to a spiked pole in the ground – is to emphasise the country fair or circus-like feel of the overall jacket design.

Your eyes will be drawn to a ghostly white tent shape right in the middle of the design which is entirely devoid of detail – almost as if the shape is composed of a white light rather than a material substance. A tear or flame-shaped opening in the tent reveals a more detailed sketch of what appears to be two army hussars sitting at a table waiting for a small girl who is approaching the tent to enter. At the opening of the tent is a small sign that has been driven into the ground on which there is no writing.

The characters in the tent, along with the tent’s internal detail is rendered in  black and white pen – as is the girl but she remains covered by the sky blue wash. The same blue covers the other pen illustrations of background tents, grass and characters which fold to make up the picture that decorates the spine.

The back panel of the jacket carries an advertisement for Marshall’s earlier novel, The Man From Devil Island.

Briggs has effectively captured the slightly unearthly atmosphere of the author’s novel and somehow manages to convey the enticement of the fair’s attractions but also the definite hint of menace that goes along with it.

I searched for this book for a long time before stumbling on it in the basement of a London bookseller who let me have it for a measly £5. Copies of the first edition hardcover are available online in this condition if you’re prepared to pay well over £100 and I guess I could have purchased one of those before my bit of luck but ordering by mail order rather robs the whole book hunting business of its thrill. Finding this gem in the way I did – and it’s a signed copy to make it even rarer – makes the capture that much sweeter and not just because it was such an absurd bargain. Finding these classics is all about the hunt and coming across this example a classic book jacket by a man who would become a legend of children’s literature is just about as good as it gets.

 

Terry Potter

August 2018

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