WORRALS AND THE MISSING ILLUSTRATIONS
by Roger Harris
As a keen W.E. Johns
collector and a particular fan of the Worrals books, it was with some
considerable surprise a few years ago when I discovered that there was a later
edition of “Worrals Down Under” that
had four illustrated colour plates in addition to the colour frontispiece. I then discovered that there was a later
edition of “Worrals in the Wastelands”
that also had four illustrated colour plates in addition to the colour
frontispiece! How on Earth had these
passed me by?! I decided to investigate. Many W. E. Johns fans will be familiar with
the eleven Worrals books about Flight Officer Joan Worralson, of the Women’s
Auxiliary Air Force and her best friend, Betty Lovell, known as “Frecks”. The eleven titles were:-
1. Worrals of
the W.A.A.F – published September
1941 in book form (following publication in 12 monthly parts in Girls Own Paper
from Oct 1940 to Sept 1941)
2. Worrals
Carries On – published October 1942
in book form (following publication in 12 monthly parts in Girls Own Paper from
Oct 1941 to Sept 1942)
3. Worrals
Flies Again – published September
1942 in book form (following publication in 15 monthly parts in Girls Own Paper
from Oct 1942 to Dec 1943)
(Although this book was published a month before ‘Carries On’ it
is clear from the content that it follows it).
4. Worrals on
the War-Path – published July 1943 in
book form. (It appears this was never
serialised anywhere – it certainly wasn’t published in the Girls Own Paper)
5. Worrals Goes
East – published May 1944 in book
form. (It appears this was never
serialised anywhere – it certainly wasn’t published in the Girls Own Paper)
6. Worrals of
the Islands – published October 1945
in book form. (It appears this was never
serialised anywhere – it certainly wasn’t published in the Girls Own Paper)
7. Worrals in
the Wilds – published November 1947
in book form (following publication in 10 monthly parts in Girls Own Paper from
Nov 1945 to Aug 1946)
8. Worrals Down
Under – published October 1948 in
book form (following publication in 10 monthly parts in Girls Own Paper from
Oct 1946 to July 1947)
9. Worrals in
the Wastelands – published January
1949 in book form. (It appears it was
never serialised anywhere – it certainly wasn’t published in the Girls Own
Paper)
10. Worrals
Goes Afoot – published 29th
August 1949 in book form. (It appears it
was never serialised anywhere – it certainly wasn’t published in the Girls Own
Paper)
11. Worrals
Investigates – published 4th
July 1950 in book form. (It appears it
was never serialised anywhere – it certainly wasn’t published in the Girls Own
Paper)
For the sake of completeness,
I will just mention there were three additional Worrals short stories – i) Worrals Takes a Hand (The Children’s
Gift Book 1946) –
ii) On the Home Front (Comrades in Arms – August 1947) and iii) Worrals Works it Out (Girl’s Own Paper
– September 1947).
I will just run through the
history of the publication of the Worrals books. This will help inform those readers who don’t
know and refresh the memories of those that do.
The first two Worrals books
were published by Lutterworth Press, ‘WAAF’ priced at three shillings and six
pence and ‘Carries On’ at four shillings and six pence. ‘WAAF’ only had a black
& white frontispiece with a particularly unflattering illustration of
Worrals. ‘Carries On’ also had a black
& white frontispiece but with eight additional full page black and white
illustrations for the extra shilling.
Johns was persuaded to move to Hodder & Stoughton and they published
‘Flies Again’ at five shillings in September 1942. I have W. E. Johns own hand amended proof
copy of this book and the typeset has the publication date as August 1942
whereas the first edition has it at September 1942. Clearly, the war-time paper shortages pushed
that back by a month. This book had a
lovely colour frontispiece (the original artwork for both the cover and the
frontispiece are in my own personal collection as it happens) and five black
and white illustrations and was first published at five shillings.
Hodder & Stoughton would
go on to publish the next five Worrals books.
‘War-Path’ was published at 5 shillings with a colour frontispiece and
eight internal full page illustrations, plus a ninth double page
illustration. ‘East’ was published at 5
shillings with a colour frontispiece and eight full page illustrations, one of
which was a double page illustration.
The ninth illustration in this book was effectively the double page map
on the inner cover and the flyleaf.
‘Islands’ was the first Worrals book published after the end of the
Second World War and no doubt paper shortages helped pushed the cost of this
first edition up to six shillings.
Again, the book had a colour frontispiece and this time, twelve internal
illustrations, on six double sided pages.
The quality of the reproduction of the images in this book was
significantly improved. ‘Wilds”, was
again priced at six shillings, had a reduced sized colour frontispiece and six
internal illustrations. Although printed
on a full page, each illustration was significantly less than full page size,
no doubt to keep down the costs. This
was published in November 1947 and was the last Hodder & Stoughton Worrals
book.
By now, Johns was frustrated
with printing delays at Hodder & Stoughton due to paper shortages. He couldn’t get his Biggles and Gimlet books
published fast enough and he had already decided to move Worrals to be
published at Lutterworths Press as I have a carbon copy of their draft
agreement, dated 24th June 1947, to publish four Worrals books. In it, Lutterworths say “the first two novels which we have run to nearer 60,000 words”. As a result they say “…. the
price is likely to be 7/6”, whereas Johns wants them sold at 6
shillings. It appears clear that both
“Down Under” and “Wastelands” had already been written by June 1947, even
though they would not appear until October 1948 and January 1949
respectively. When they were published,
they were priced at seven shillings and sixpence and were completely lacking in
the illustration department. The
frontispiece was not an original picture but merely the top half of the dust
jacket picture and there were no internal illustrations whatsoever. Additionally, the author was credited as “W.
E. Johns” without the “Captain” much to John’s chagrin.
Lutterworths then publish the
last two Worrals books, “Afoot” in August 1949 and “Investigates” in July
1950. “Afoot” was 6 shillings, again
poorly illustrated. No internal pictures
other than a frontispiece that was merely the top half of the original dust
jacket illustration. “Investigates”
fared better, at six shillings, this offered better value for money because,
although the frontispiece repeats the top half of the dust wrapper again, at
least in this Worrals book we get four lovely colour plates and a list of
illustrations. On both of these books,
the author is credited as “Capt. W. E. Johns”.
Why the change? Well, Johns had
written a scathing letter to Lutterworths on 4th July 1949,
reminding them that they has said that they could do what Hodders could
do. “It
was on the literal interpretation of that term that I proceeded, with some
difficulty, in withdrawing Worrals from Hodders and sending her to you”. Johns then points out that Lutterworth Press
reduced the advanced royalty and print run.
They wanted stories reduced from 60,000 words to 50,000 words and
publication was delay. He then says “you omitted the customary illustrations
and then, on top of that, increased the price to a figure that had the effect
of reducing sales considerably. Finally,
you took what I consider an unpardonably liberty in altering my usual title,
without reference to me, to one which I use exclusively for adult work”.
Personally, I always felt
that the Worrals books just got better and better, but the last one, it has to
be said is fairly awful. Not only is the
plot rather ridiculous, the ending is even more so. Worrals effectively goes in and just tells
the baddies to stop doing what they are doing.
I imagine that Johns, sick and tired with Lutterworths, just knocked out
a last lame contractual obligation book and hurried it to a resolution without
too much thought. In the July 1949
letter referred to above, Johns says, “the
last book of our present contract is written and only awaits the typist” so
he had only recently finished it before writing the letter.
Lutterworths tried to get
Johns to change his mind, but his working arrangement with them was over. It may have been in an attempt to appease
Johns, that in 1950, Lutterworths issued “new illustrated” versions of their
Worrals books all priced at six shillings.
The first two to receive this treatment were the very first two Worrals
books, “WAAF” and “Carries On”. The “New Illustrated Editions” of these two
books featured new cover art. They also
have a distinctive yellow spine with a large blue band across it. They had a frontispiece that again was the
top half of the dust wrapper illustration.
I can only suppose that the thinking behind this was that many children
didn’t keep the dust wrapper or soon destroyed it.
In “WAAF”, opposite the first
page of the first chapter is a list of illustrations and in addition to the
aforementioned colour frontispiece the book had four lovely colour plates. In “Carries On” before the first page of the
first chapter there is a whole new page and on the first side of that is the
list of illustrations. Again, in
addition to the frontispiece are four lovely colour plates. However, I wonder how many of you have
actually seen these illustrations? The
bulk of these reprinted books simply do not have the colour plates and the page
referring to the illustrations has been removed. This has clearly been done at the printing
stage. Virtually every copy of these
reprinted books I have found does NOT have the illustrations! It took me some considerable time to find two
copies that did! I have both examples of
these books, ones with the illustrations and one without. The “WAAF” reprint was “printed in Great
Britain at the St. Ann’s Press, Timperley, Altrincham” and on that page there
is an interesting minor difference.
After the words “Fifth Impression 1948” it says “New Illustrated Edition
1950” in the copy that does have the colour plates and it says “Sixth
Impression 1950” in the copy that does not have the colour plates or list of
illustrations. Additionally, the
contents page for this book has been re-type set in a larger font as the page
has had to be reprinted. The back of the
original contents page had the list of illustrations on, which is now not in
this book. The two versions were clearly
printed at different times, with different printing plates. However in “Carries On” which was “Printed in
Great Britain by Ebenezer Baylis and Son, Ltd, the Trinity Press, Worcester,
and London” both versions of the book follow “Third Impression 1948” with “New
illustrated edition 1950”. Ebenezer used
the same plates it would appear. The
“illustrations” page is just removed as it was on a page of its own and
although there are no illustrations in one version and four colour plates in
the other, I can find nothing to distinguish the two versions, other than what
is missing.
“Down Under” and “Wastelands”
were also released with the yellow spine and large blue band, again with, and
without, illustrations. Both my versions
of this reprint of “Down Under” are price cut but I have regularly seen this
cover priced at six shillings, and both versions of “Wastelands” are priced at
six shillings. These reprints use the
same cover illustrations as the first editions.
Again, there are two versions of this “New Illustrated Edition”, those
that feature four colour plates and the frontispiece (the usual top half of the
dust jacket picture) and those that do not feature the illustrations or have a
list of illustrations. Both dust jackets
have a white flash over the unacceptable “W. E. Johns” on which is now written
“Capt. W. E. Johns”. Both copies of
“Down Under” have on the printing details page “First Published 1948” followed
by “New Illustrated Edition 1950” whether they have the colour plates in them
or not. Both were published by Ebenezer
Baylis and Son, Ltd. The version without
the colour plates have lost the entire chapter contents page as the list of
illustrations was on the back of this.
Mean old Ebenezer didn’t bother to redo the contents page with no list
of illustrations on the back, it would appear.
With regard to the two versions of “Wastelands” it is exactly the same,
except that the “First Published” year is 1949 rather than 1948. “New Illustrated Edition 1950” follows and
the one without the illustrations does not have the contents page as the list
of illustrations was on the back of that.
Ebenezer is the publisher again.
I think there is a reason why
the prices are cut off of my copies of “Down Under”. I have pictures of a “New Illustrated
Edition” of “Down Under” with a separate paper yellow band around it saying
“First Cheap Editon 3s. 6d. net”. I am guessing that the versions WITHOUT the
colour illustrations were sold off cheaply at three shillings and sixpence and
the version with the colour plates was sold at six shillings. That would fit with all the facts. I am
tempted to challenge anyone to find copies of this book with four colour plates
in as they are VERY hard to find. So
hard to find that I didn’t believe they existed until I chanced upon them one
day and then it took me considerable time and effort to find copies with the
illustrations to buy.
Just a couple of asides. I have a version of “Worrals in the
Wastelands” with the “normal” first edition dust jacket and spine, that is
price clipped and repriced at six shillings rather that the seven shillings and
six pence. It appears that after the
original first edition release, the book was then repriced at six
shillings. Johns said in his letter to
Lutterworths that sales had been affected by the higher price. They must have reduced the price to sell off
the unsold stock.
“Worrals of the Wastelands”
was originally entitled by Johns “Worrals and the Lipstick Clue” but
(unsurprisingly) the publishers didn’t like that title. In a letter dated 13th August
1947, Peter Watt, Johns’ literary agent writes to Johns about this and asks him
to suggest a new title. Scrawled on this
letter in Johns handwriting is what I assume to be “W in the Wasteland” (Note
there was no “S” on the end of that)
however the scribble could easily be read as “W in the Northland” and maybe it
was misread(!) and that should have been the title.
I always thought that the
last Worrals book – “Worrals Investigates” was only issued in an illustrated
version. But I have discovered that
there is also a version that has no illustrations. This book was
published on 4th July 1950 and has the usual colour frontispiece (reproducing
the dust jacket illustration) plus four very nice colour plates. In the
original first edition at page 5 there is a list of chapter titles on a
contents page and then on page 6 there is a list of the illustrations. I
have a version of this book where this page has been carefully removed,
although there are still signs of it having been there and there are no colour
plates other than the frontispiece. I am of the opinion that this has
been done by the publishers rather than some previous owner. Both books have the same publication details
and it would appear that although there was only ever one edition of the book,
some had the colour plates and some didn’t.
So, what was the cause of the
missing colour plates in all of these books?
Too many books printed and not enough colour plates? A lack of funds? Or was it that the books were published at
six shillings with colour illustrations to appease Johns and when he didn’t
return to Lutterworths, they thought, why bother with the expense? Just issue the reprints without the colour
plates. Who knows? It’s a mystery worthy of Worrals herself!
I would be very interested to
hear from Johns collectors if they have copies of the “New Illustrated
Editions” of the Worrals books with all four illustrations in. Most importantly I want to know if “Worrals
Goes Afoot” was ever published with illustrations? I am confident in saying it was not, as it
was never republished with the yellow spine with blue flash as far as I am
aware – but who knows? Maybe somebody
out there can prove me wrong. For years,
I always thought that “Down Under” and “Wastelands” had no illustrations.
Please feel free to contact me at rogerharris@biggles.info and you can
go to www.worrals.com to view all the
illustrations to which this article refers.