an unusual first class bear
This has been a VERY difficult secret to keep under my hat, or should I say behind my large white rosette…
Mary Plain, the bear cub and star of Gwynedd Rae’s long-running series of stories, much loved in the 1930’s through to the 1960’s but since largely forgotten, returns next year – illustrated by ME!
To bring Mary back from obscurity has been a literary treasure hunt over many years. With my daughter Leah, fellow Mary fan, we have scoured second-hand bookshops for every old copy and every edition, studied wills and codicils written on faded paper with old-fashioned typewriters, researched long-lost relatives and publishing houses and lawyers. When I discovered that Egmont were searching too and we met somewhere in the middle, suffice to say, many celebratory cream buns were consumed.
But first I need to go right back to the beginning…
I have loved Mary Plain since I was very young, and I’ve longed to illustrate her stories all this time too, ever since I could first properly hold a pencil.
The books were read to me by my mother, whose own mother read them to her, and I in turn have read them to my children. Iconic Mary-isms have entered our family language. We plan ‘svisits’ instead of visits, and we write notes to each other in the style of Mary’s picture writing. When uncertain, sad or homesick, we find Mary’s wobbly words ‘Do you think the twins are happy without me?’ say it better than anything else could.
Gwynedd Rae’s creation is an orphan bear cub from the bear pits of Berne Zoo. Mary is both bear-like and child-like, a perfect combination, an enormous personality all wrapped up in a small, pointy-eared, browny-grey furry package. She can be willful and impossible, with an unsquashable ego and an insatiable appetite. But she is also funny, irrepressibly optimistic and utterly endearing. The limited yet marvelous wardrobe she acquires, too, is worthy of note: what more could one need than a red and white striped bathing costume, a sailor’s hat and a bus conductor’s uniform?
I love the world of the bear pits and the extended family that inhabit it – the grumpy older bears, Mary and her twin cousins Little Wool and Marionetta. They fall out and make up, just like all families. And I love the human world of smart apartments and vintage travel, picnics and tea parties. The seemingly endless supply of meringues, éclairs, sugar lumps and cream buns always appealed to me greatly, and in truth it still does.
Written between 1930 and 1965, the Mary Plain series has an abundance of delightful retro details throughout; but the universal appeal of the escapades and hi-jinks of a small bear cub, at large in the sophisticated world of grown-ups, is timeless.
There has been a Mary-shaped gap in the cast list of classic bears in children’s books for far too long. And, have you noticed, bears are almost always boys – we need a girl bear, urgently!
I’m so proud and happy to see the gloriously inventive, enchanting and entertaining writings of Gwynedd Rae restored, and for Mary to take her rightful place again at last. I hope that those who are fans of Mary already will think me worthy of being her illustrator, and that readers who meet her for the first time will love her as much as I do.
She doesn’t need any help to introduce herself, so, in her own words…
‘I am Mary Plain, an unusual first-class bear with a white rosette and a gold medal with a picture of myself on it.’
Wonderful news!
Thank you very much Anne, and for calling by! Hope all is well and happy with you and yours X
Oh my goodness . I loved these books as a child in Edinburgh in early 1960s. Much better than the Paddington books. Long overdue a comeback.
I thought about this little bear the other day when I was remembering the books that I borrowed from the library as a child. I borrowed the Mary Plain books more than once! I am so excited to hear that another generation of children will be introduced to her and her adventures :o)
Huge congratulations on being Mary Plain’s new illustrator!
Thank you so much Catherine! I’m so delighted to hear that Mary popped up in your childhood too. I dearly hope you approve of the new editions – can’t wait to show you! X
As a huge fan of Mary Plain and of your illustrations (both of which were present throughout my childhood) this is very exciting indeed! I too have trawled second hand bookshops and built quite a collection of Mary Plain, but can’t wait to add these new editions to it very soon.
Hello Rose, a belated but huge thank you for your very kind comment – I am so thrilled to meet a fellow Mary fan! I do hope you feel I’ve done her justice. Maybe one day we might meet up and bring our collections! Clara X
Clara – that is such wonderful news! I can’t think of anyone better to give Mary Plain a new lease of life! I look forward very much to seeing the books.
What a treat!!
Jane x
Hello Jane, I am so happy to find you here – thank you so much for calling by! And for your very kind words.
I have been a very poor host – so sorry I didn’t spot your message sooner. I can’t wait to show you…
Clara X
Late to the party here, but great news, congratulations!
Hello Katherine – I am even later to return to the party, but thank you very much indeed! Clara X
Delighted to hear that Mary Plain is making a comeback. I had all her books as a child, and the later ones in the 60’s I got for my sons, and they have been passed on to the four grandchildren. I wonder if you will include Mary Plain in wartime ? I still have a copy but it seemed to have disappeared from lists on the internet. I too have been to the bear-pits at Bern – my eldest son lives there ! (in Bern that is, not the bear-pits !) He tells me that the pits have been enlarged and now have more greenery which is better for the inmates. When we went, the arrangements were just like the books – nursery pit etc. I shall look forward to the ‘new’ books!
Hello Jill, thank you so much for calling by and for your encouraging response to the news of Mary’s return.
How wonderful to think that your have three generations of fans, as I do. And a son in Bern, too, how very fitting!
I visited the bear pits to doing some drawings and research, and found the same: the pits are still there and exactly as described in the books, but the bears live in a much better space with greenery and a river to bathe in.
Between February the 3rd and 9th I’ll be running a special Mary week here on the blog – I do hope you can call back again!
I’ve just seen this, and I absolutely can’t wait for the books! Mary Plain didn’t make an appearance in my childhood and she sounds just wonderful. I’m a huge fan of fictional bears and, as you rightly point out, we really need more girl bears in fiction! So excited – and congratulations, Clara!
Hello Helen, I’ve only just seen your lovely message – thank you SO MUCH for calling by!
I’m so glad you like the sound of Mary, I do hope you like her…
Thank you! Clara x
Oh, wow! I have very fond memories of Richard Wattis reading the Mary Plain stories on Jackanory when I was little. How lovely to discover that they’re coming back.
Was so delighted to see this post. I adored Mary Plain as a child, and was beginning to wonder if I had imagined her. I think I must have got all the books out of the library, because no sign of them.
I think they were around the first books I read to myself. I remember wondering what mer. ring. goos were, and being disappointed to discover they were the meringues I already knew about and loved so much.
I haven’t checked Amazon yet, but when are the books with your illustrations due out?
Ps I was born in 1952 in England, and have failed to find other fanatic readers of Mary.
I have loved Mary Plain all my life, and my children…now parents themselves, ditto… We too quote certain things, like, when Mary left the tap running in Friska’s pit, and her new cubs Forgetmenot and Plum were found floating on a straw bed…Mary ,when asked by Friska how she would have felt if the cubs had drowned, thinks “glad” but was sensible enough not to say it! We also quote ” do you like cake? When the biscuit and cakes get low! . I recently gave the anthology of Mary Plain to a young mother who with her children had just visited Berne Pits. Apparently they too are loving the stories.
My sister and brother and I were brought up on Mary Plain. We loved her and her adventures with The Owl Man and the Fur Coat Lady and all her adventures and svisits! Sometime over the years as a result of many moves these books have gone astray. I would love to read them to my grandson but cannot find a copy in any library or second hand book shop here in New Zealand and apart from my brother and sister no one seems to have heard of Mary Plain. What a shame!!