- The 1960s were a golden age for children’s books, not least thanks to Kaye Webb, Editor of Puffin Books who was born in Chiswick and lived by the river in Montrose Villas, Hammersmith Terrace. “Kaye Webb burst on to the children’s publishing scene in 1961 and changed the industry forever. With no publishing experience whatsoever, Kaye persuaded renowned authors like Roald Dahl and Nina Bawden to publish their hardback bestsellers as pocket-sized paperbacks that children could buy themselves. ” – BBC Radio 4 Great Lives.
- Kaye worked for many years at Puffin with her neighbour Jane Nissen of Chiswick Mall (above left). “The doorbell rang and it was Kaye Webb who’d moved just down the road” Jane said. She joined Puffin and stayed until 1979, when Kaye Webb retired. From 1980-86 she worked at Methuen Children’s Books, where she bought Michael Morpurgo’s War Horse and made it a best-seller. She returned to Penguin as editorial director of Hamish Hamilton’s children’s list. In 1998, made to retire from Penguin, she set up Jane Nissen Books to republish out-of-print children’s classics, including several of Noel Streatfeild’s ‘shoes’ series. She won the Eleanor Farjeon Award, as had Kaye Webb.
- Jane worked closely at Penguin with Sally Floyer, who also lives in Chiswick (above right). Sally became managing director of Frederick Warne, the company that first published the works of Beatrix Potter, which became a division of Penguin in 1983. She was also managing director of the Ladybird books series. For 20 years she managed some of the world’s most enduring children’s properties, including Peter Rabbit, licensing them for the screen as well as publishing. “With some trepidation Sally invited the Beatrix Potter Society members to an early screening and was very relieved that they liked it very much” – License Global Magazine
In 2005, Slightly Foxed – ‘The magazine for people who love books’ – carried articles about Kaye Webb – Nuffin’ Like A Puffin – and Jane Nissen – The Golden Thread. Click the link to subscribe or buy back issues.
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Chiswick has its own ‘Golden Thread’ of children’s books, writes Chiswick Book Festival director Torin Douglas:
The Observer once wrote that ‘Chiswick may be Britain’s most literary location’ – and we can now see that it has an amazing record in works for children too, which we highlighted in our exhibition ‘Chiswick’s Books for Children: The Untold Story’.
See: Exhibition for World Book Day tells ‘The Untold Story of Chiswick’s Books For Children’ – The Chiswick Calendar
See: Exhibition Reveals How Chiswick Has Shaped Children’s Literature – ChiswickW4.com
See: Harry Potter to Peter Rabbit: Chiswick’s Untold Story – Hounslow Herald
There is a ‘golden thread’ of Chiswick publishers that runs through Puffin and Penguin Books, from:
– Kaye Webb, who persuaded dozens of top children’s authors to have their books published as Puffin paperbacks and set up the Puffin Club and Puffin Post to help promote them; through:
– Jane Nissen (above), who worked closely with Kaye at Puffin and later published Michael Morpurgo’s War Horse in paperback;
– Sally Floyer (above), who worked with Jane at Penguin and oversaw the sensitive transfer of Peter Rabbit from book to screen as well as Spot and other characters;
– Dotti Irving, whose first job was promoting the 1,000th Puffin Book with the Goodies; who went on to work with JK Rowling and run the Booker Prize; and who recruited:
– Barry Cunningham, who worked in the Turn’em Pages bookshop in Turnham Green Terrace before joining Puffin and later, at Bloomsbury, publishing Harry Potter & The Philosopher’s Stone, which had been turned down by numerous publishers.
– Tony Lacey took over Kaye Webb’s editorial chair in 1979, at the invitation of Penguin managing director Peter Mayer. Alongside the Puffin Club, the Puffin School Book Club grew significantly in this period, such that by 1983 one in three Penguin books sold was a Puffin. See Wikipedia: Penguin Books.
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– David Teale chose books for the Puffin School Book Club, and later set up the Red House Book Club, once the UK’s biggest seller of children’s literature. For 30 years, his house on Strand on the Green has displayed soft toys in the window (above), including Wally, Paddington, Postman Pat’s cat Jess and Spot the Dog. See interview: The Chiswick Calendar.
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And it wasn’t only Penguin and Puffin.
– Penny Morris headed several children’s publishers, managing ‘heritage’ characters such as Thomas the Tank Engine, Winnie the Pooh, Alice in Wonderland, Babar, Rupert the Bear and Postman Pat. She even had a firefighter named after her in Fireman Sam!
Similarly, in children’s television and theatre, Chiswick was the hub for many of those creating much-loved characters and transferring them to the stage and screen. They include current illustrators such as Lo Cole, who wrote Scooter Dog and grew up in South Parade with his sister Alison Cole and parents Michael and Joanne Cole, creators of Bod and Fingerbobs (below).
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A new series of Bod is now in development through Terrific Television, in conjunction with Lo and Alison Cole. See images below:
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The Chiswick Timeline of Writers & Books lists almost 500 writers who have written a book and lived in Chiswick W4, or written books about the area. See A Quick Guide. We are about to add a list of Chiswick’s publishers. The Writers Tales section adds context through photographs and anecdotes.