WHERE THE BUS STOPPED

1966 edition cover Courtesy of Steven Handy)

The Easter holidays, and Mike and Mary decide to spend the day exploring a place they have never been before. Their choice is made by getting on a bus for somewhere they don't know and getting off it when it goes no further . . . First edition 1955: [acquired 1956 by BL] small book, 30pp; 3 illus; ? d/w. Reprinted 1959 according to Beyond the Lone Pine. Reprinted 1966: a slim book, 5½ by 7 inches (130x185mm); red cloth. The front board has title, authors signature and publisher in black, and the figures of Mary, Michael and the dog Dougal. These are repeats of the illustrations in the text. This slim book has thirty pages of story and a short note about the author on page 31.

Mary

The three illustrations are taken from the earlier Mike and Mary book The Riddle of the Painted Box published by Transatlantic Arts in 1947 and the original drawings are by Lunt Roberts. These three appear to have been 'lifted' from the original artwork, but with Mike's right arm being drawn in later as it is concealed in the original picture. For some reason Dougal's tail has been docked at the same time ! Lunt Roberts is not credited with these illustrations (but might have been in the earlier editions). It is likely that this book was issued with a dustwrapper, but we have no information on that as yet. [For information on this edition, thanks to Steven Handy]

Mike

The story was also published in Six of the Best, an anthology edited by Geoffrey Trease and published by Blackwell in 1955 [BL catalogue].

Dougal