Pauline Baynes, the illustrator of C. S. Lewis's Narnia books, died on 1st August.She was 86.
For many she will live on because of the iconic images she created for Lewis's series, in particular (for me at least) that evocative picture of Luch and Susan frolicking with Aslan (on the cover of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) and the one (in the same book) of Lucy walking through the snow with Tumnus the Faun (left).
In fact, Baynes illustrated books many other books by
other authors, including J. R. R. Tolkien, Rumer Godden and Helen Piers. I was surprised to discover that she was also responsible for the cover for the first paperback edition of Richard Adams's Watership Down. That's one cover I remember distinctly from my childhood - I didn't know she was the illustrator until I read about her her death on Brian Sibley's blog.Sibley also wrote her obituary in The Independent.
