In 2013 I wrote about my love of Gwyneth Mamlok’s series of Candy picture books. These were the stories I enjoyed most as a young girl growing up in the 1960s.
In my original post I left out pictures of the third book in the series, Candy and the Golden Eagle, which was published by Thomas Nelson and Sons in 1965. It tells the story of Goldie the golden eagle, who has escaped from the zoo and is perched on a tree branch in the park.
Like the other books, my copy has been ‘pre-loved’ to the extent that it is now held together with (vintage) sellotape. Even worse, there are pencil scribblings throughout the text, which is probably why I decided not to include it in the previous post. But pictures like this are just too good not to share, and I see there is a loyal band of Gwyneth Mamlok admirers on Instagram.
So I’ve repaired the damaged and loose pages of Candy and the Golden Eagle. I’m not going to rub out the pencil marks because they’re now part of the history of the book.
Like the other four Candy books I own, Candy and the Golden Eagle uses the same image on the front and back endpapers. (You can see half of this double page spread below.) On this book they didn’t flip the image – so it does appear identical at the back and front.
My family was living in Edinburgh in the mid-60s. The bookseller pencilled in the price of 5 shillings. Copies are hard to find these days, so it would definitely fetch more than that now . . .
Since my original post, I’ve discovered that the author and illustrator was born Gwyneth Leaver Parker on 9 January 1925, in Pretoria, South Africa. She died on 31 July 2014, in Barnard Castle, Durham. I think it is likely that her daughter was the model for the Candy character.
I plan to do more research this year on Gwyneth Mamlok and some of her other publications.
In the mean time, enjoy the pictures and the memories.
The Taft Hotel 