Does anyone remember the “Milly-Molly-Mandy” book series by British writer/illustrator, Joyce Lancester-Brisley? Starting out as a young writer, Joyce, at the age of 13, wrote her first fairy story and published it in a children’s paper. After the family moved to London, Joyce attended art school for two years. By the age of 20, she and her two sisters, Nina K. Brisley, and Ethel C. Brisley (who were also illustrators), had paintings hung in The Royal Academy. All three sisters illustrated postcards for Alfred Vivian Mansell.
Joyce lived in Ham Common, near Richmond and never married. She died in 1978 at the age of 82. Joyce’s legacy is a collection of seven books which were first printed in 1925, and later had a resurgence in the 1950s and 1960s. The latest editions of her books were published ca. 2004. Amongst the collection of Milly-Molly-Mandy stories were:
- Milly-Molly-Mandy Storybook (1928)
- Milly-Molly-Mandy Again (1953)
- Milly-Molly-Mandy and Co. (1955)
- More of Milly-Molly-Mandy (1957)
- Further Doings of Milly-Molly-Mandy (1959)
- Milly-Molly-Mandy Stories (1960)
- Milly-Molly-Mandy and Billy Blunt (1967)
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