Monthly Archives: September 2008

A Flight of Puffins… (an obscure joke I’m afraid)

Jill McDonald, Puffin Club, Puffin Exhibition, Puffin Post


Dear Blog reader, I must apologise for the lack of posting for the last week – it really has been a bit busy. What I can promise you is a Halloween special with some of my favourite Autumn covers. In the mean time, please enjoy a lovely throwaway decoration that festooned the walls and ceilings of the Commonwealth Institute at the Puffin Exhibition.

At the end of the show I saw them being pulled off the walls and stuffed into rubbish bins. This horrified me, even at a tender age, and I asked Kaye Webb if I could take one home. The pink one lived blu-tacked to my wall until it found its way to the safety of my portfolio – as far as I know it’s the only one left.

The Puffin Post Relaunch

BBC Radio, Jeremy Strong, Puffin Post

eptember is on the way out and so is the ultra brief Indian summer.

Here I am back from the newly relaunched and re imagined Puffin Post party. I’m glad to say that it has retained the spirit of the old, whilst made it accessible for today’s kids – and what a lot of kids there were!! I’m sure that there will be coverage in the press about the party, but it included all of the elements that were around in the old Puffin Parties and Exhibitions. I think Kaye would have been very pleased.

I also did my bit talking about the clubs old and new on BBC Three Counties Radio with author Jeremy Strong. For some reason, the listen again facility for the show hasn’t been updated for over a week – The nice people at BBC Three Counties Radio have told me they are looking into it. As far as I can tell, it went very well. I’d be interested to know if any of you heard it.

Puffin Club? Puffin Post? What’s the difference?

Kaye Webb, Puffin Club, Puffin diary, Puffin Post

I have to admit I’m a bit of a pedant when it comes to history – it comes from working in Film restoration and in the media. There’s a lot of revisionist thinking out there (re-writing of history).

So what was the ‘Puffin Club’ (not Puffin Post)? Well here’s a great little explanation by Kaye Webb herself, writing in the Puffin Diary of 1979:

The new club is called ‘Puffin Post’ – not the ‘Puffin Club’. The club is now the schools entity. I suppose this makes it easier to differentiate between the two. I can’t help feeling this may confuse a few of us older members, but I have to remind you – ‘It’s not for us! It’s for our kids!’

Puffin Club? Puffin Post? What’s the difference?

Kaye Webb, Puffin Club, Puffin diary, Puffin Post

I have to admit I’m a bit of a pedant when it comes to history – it comes from working in Film restoration and in the media. There’s a lot of revisionist thinking out there (re-writing of history).

So what was the ‘Puffin Club’ (not Puffin Post)? Well here’s a great little explanation by Kaye Webb herself, writing in the Puffin Diary of 1979:

The new club is called ‘Puffin Post’ – not the ‘Puffin Club’. The club is now the schools entity. I suppose this makes it easier to differentiate between the two. I can’t help feeling this may confuse a few of us older members, but I have to remind you – ‘It’s not for us! It’s for our kids!’

Bookplates

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Another little treat for you. This is the original Puffin Club bookplate design. You would get a sheet of eight of these on pre-gummed paper. I think this has a lovely old school charm about it. It certainly felt like your books were safer when you lent them to friends (didn’t stop them from getting scuffed to hell though – you know who you are!!!!)

The new Puffin Post club has revived this design with a lot of colour and the addition of their puffin mascot – as yet unnamed.

Bookplates

Illustration, Kaye Webb, Puffin Books, Puffin Club

Another little treat for you. This is the original Puffin Club bookplate design. You would get a sheet of eight of these on pre-gummed paper. I think this has a lovely old school charm about it. It certainly felt like your books were safer when you lent them to friends (didn’t stop them from getting scuffed to hell though – you know who you are!!!!). 

The design was created by the illustrator Roland Ferns, who had worked with Kaye Webb during her time at Lilliput. Some of his work was surreal and heading into more adult imagery, but this one image is probably his most enduring.

The new Puffin Post club has revived this design with a lot of colour and the addition of their puffin mascot – as yet unnamed.