{{Short description|British illustrator (1925–2008)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2022}} {{Use British English|date=November 2017}} {{Infobox artist | name = Margery Jean Gill | image = <!-- just the pagename, without the File:/Image: prefix or brackets --> | image_size = | alt = | caption = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | birth_name = <!--only use if different from name--> | birth_date = {{Birth date|1925|04|05|df=yes}} | birth_place = Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, Scotland | death_date = {{Death date and age|2008|10|31|1925|04|05|df=yes}} | death_place = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates = <!-- {{Coord|LAT|LONG|type:landmark|display=inline}} --> | alma_mater = Harrow School of Art<br>Royal College of Art | known_for = Children's book illustration | notable_works = Margaret Kornitzer, ''Mr Fairweather and his Family'', The Bodley Head, 1960<br>Frances Hodgson Burnett, ''A Little Princess'', Puffin Books, 1961<br>Susan Cooper, ''Over Sea, Under Stone'', Jonathan Cape, 1965<br>Susan Cooper, ''Dawn of Fear'', ''Chatto & Windus'', 1972 | spouse = {{marriage|Patrick Jordan|1946|<!-- Omission per Template:Marriage instructions -->}} | children = 2 | website = <!-- {{URL|Example.com}} --> }} [[File:A Little Princess cover illustration by Margery Gill.jpg|thumb|right|Cover illustration of Frances Hodgson Burnetts' ''A Little Princess'', Puffin Books, 1961]] '''Margery Jean Gill''' (5 April 1925 – 31 October 2008) was a British illustrator of children's books.
==Early life== Born in Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, Scotland, on 5 April 1925, she was brought up in Hatch End, London<ref name=holland>Steve Holland, [http://bearalley.blogspot.co.uk/2008/12/margery-gill-1925-2008.html Margery Gill (1925-2008)], Bear Alley, 18 December 2008</ref> after her father Oscar moved there to take a job at the Post Office Research Station developing the speaking clock.<ref name=guardian>Matthew Weaver, [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/dec/11/1 Obituary: Margery Gill], ''The Guardian'', 11 December 2008</ref> She left school at 14 and took a place at Harrow School of Art.
==Studies== In 1946 she began studying etching and engraving at the Royal College of Art, married actor Patrick Jordan, and illustrated her first book, Robert Louis Stevenson's ''A Child's Garden of Verses'', for the Oxford University Press.<ref name=holland /><ref name=times>[https://www.thetimes.com/travel/destinations/uk-travel/england/london-travel/margery-gill-illustrator-of-childrens-books-d95njsshst8 Obituaries: Margery Gill: illustrator of children’s books], ''The Times'', 17 December 2008</ref>
==Artistic career== After a series of commissions for the Oxford University Press, Gill began an association with The Bodley Head, for whom she illustrated over thirty books between 1957 and 1982,<ref name=holland /> including Margaret Kornitzer’s 1960 novel about adoption, ''Mr Fairweather and his Family'',<ref name=times /> and books by Anita Hewett, Roger Lancelyn Green and others.<ref name=holland /> John Ryder, the publisher's design and art director, said her early work was "interfered with, rather than aided" by her background in etching and engraving, but as her drawings became bolder her work became more in demand, her serious, unsentimental view of childhood suiting the kitchen sink realism prevalent in children's books at the time.<ref name=guardian /> She remarked "that is often how children are — taking their own lives seriously".<ref name=times />
Eleanor Graham, the founding editor of Puffin Books, also sought her out to illustrate books including a 1961 edition of ''A Little Princess'' by Frances Hodgson Burnett.<ref name=guardian /> She worked for numerous other publishers, including Jonathan Cape, for whom she illustrated Susan Cooper's ''Over Sea, Under Stone'' in 1965, and Chatto & Windus,<ref name=holland /> for whom she illustrated Cooper's ''Dawn of Fear'' in 1972, drawing on her own memories of living in London during the Second World War. Cooper said of her work on ''Dawn of Fear'', "She caught the image of the kids I was writing about perfectly, with no communication. That does huge things for the confidence of a writer."<ref name=guardian /> She illustrated ''A Candle in Her Room'' for Gollancz in 1966. She would often travel to capture the landscape and setting of books she illustrated, particularly those by Ruth Arthur and William Mayne, and for this reason a German publisher commissioned her to illustrate a German translation of Arthur Ransome's ''Swallows and Amazons''.<ref name=times />
She was admired by fellow illustrator Shirley Hughes, who said "I thought her work was terrific. It made me look to my laurels. It was modern - the children she depicted were less sweet. Margery used solid black line with tremendous fluidity and ease: the way her children stood and moved was very distinctive."<ref name=guardian />
==Personal life== She combined freelance work as an illustrator with motherhood - she had two daughters - and a teaching job at Maidstone College of Art.<ref name=guardian /> From 1969 she and her husband lived in Alpheton in Suffolk.<ref name=sfp>[http://www.suffolkfreepress.co.uk/news/latest-news/tributes-to-modest-illustrator-margery-83-of-alpheton-1-559857 "Tributes to 'modest' illustrator Margery, 83, of Alpheton"], ''Suffolk Free Press'', 17 December 2008</ref> As the 1970s went on her work fell out of fashion as publishers preferred cartoonier illustrations for children's books, and her output was slowed by arthritis in her hands,<ref name=guardian /> and in her later years, cataracts.<ref name=times /> The last book she illustrated was Anne Thwaite's ''Pennies for the Dog'' in 1985.<ref name=guardian /> She did voluntary work in her retirement, including charity collections and Meals on Wheels.<ref name=sfp /> She died on 31 October 2008, survived by her husband, the older of their two daughters<ref name=guardian /> (their younger daughter died in 1996),<ref name=sfp /> four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.<ref name=guardian />
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== {{Portal |Children's literature |Visual arts }} *[http://www.pinterest.com/patrickbrown40/margery-gill/ Selection of Margery Gill illustrations at Pinterest] * {{LCAuth|n79089011|Margery Gill|36|ue}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gill, Margery}} Category:1925 births Category:2008 deaths Category:British children's book illustrators Category:British women children's book illustrators Category:People from Coatbridge Category:Alumni of the Royal College of Art