Gunvor and Peter Edwards

Gunvor and Peter Edwards were two impressionistic artists who illustrated The Railway Series from 1963-1972. They illustrated books 18-26 of the series.

Artist for Hire
John T. Kenney had resigned from The Railway Series due to failing eyesight. Faced with this resignation, publisher Eric Marriot decided to ask Swedish born artist - Gunvor Edwards to try her hand at capturing the style that had been set by Dalby. Believing little to be beyond her, Gunvor started with the illustration of The Diesel standing alongside the engines at the sheds. Gunvor found it quite difficult concerning the amount of space she had to work with on the picture, and turned to husband Peter to see if he could try and do the pictures. Although he claims he was unable to imitate the previous style any better than his wife could, Eric Marriot was still happy to allow Peter Edwards to continue, and despite illustrating the further books on his own, he continued to share credit with wife Gunvor.

Meeting Mr. Awdry
Relations between Awdry and his new illustrator went very well from the first meeting, Awdry appreciated Edwards' style of artwork, quoted as saying, "He drew from life and obviously had an affection for the characters."

How they got Inspiration
The illustrator often found himself on "Bus-man's Holidays" where he was going to railways Awdry was needing pictures of real locos and landscapes from. "At a time in our life," says Edwards, "of short funds and few breaks, the family had an excuse to explore the Welsh Coast, Lakeland, Cornwall and Devon, Sussex and Kent with a steam trip to cap it all!" This kind of dedication impressed the author, as he recalled, "Peter was so keen on getting authentic drawings of the locomotives, that he went down to Llanberis in January to visit workshops of the Snowdon Mountain Railway."

Working Life
Edwards stayed in dedicated service up until the final book in 1972 - "Tramway Engines", and even illustrated the Surprise Packet in 1971, published by Edmund Ward to avail Awdry in his time of writer's block. It would be fair to say his illustrations were somewhat the inspiration for the 1979/1980 annuals, where the artist - Edgar Hodges - drew and painted in a very similar impressionist style!

Books Illustrated
"Stepney the "Bluebell" Engine"

"Mountain Engines"

"Very Old Engines"

"Main Line Engines"

"Small Railway Engines"

"Enterprising Engines"

"Oliver the Western Engine"

"Duke the Lost Engine"

"Tramway Engines"

Footnote
In late Summer, 2007 SiF's Troublesome Truck on behalf of SiF was honoured to have received a reply from Peter Edwards which can be read at http://www.sodor-island.net/edwards.html