Some amazing news from Curvedairpress:
Marjorie Phillips' daughter, Hazel Dunn, who is her mother's literary executor, has recently discovered two more novels about Annabel. We all believed that Annabel and the Blue Hills was the very last that Marjorie had completed; we were wrong, but it may not be possible to publish Annabel and the Underground House and Annabel and the Cloak. I have been editing them both and have not yet succeeded in making them publishable. I have not given up, as there as some charming things in them, but it may be that Blue Hills really will be the last...
Some updated contact details:
With immediate effect, the AOL based addresses Russell and Ghillian Potts will cease to be valid. The new addresses are russellpotts@ntlworld.com, ghillianpotts@ntlworld.com and curvedairpress@ntlworld.com respectively.
Latest news from Curvedairpress about Marjorie Phillips' publications:
We are about to go to press with a short historical book by Marjorie, Claude at Harfleur. Cross dressing Welsh girl gets to the siege with Henry V. 2008
Latest news from Ghillian Potts about the final installement, Annabel and the Blue Hills:
Annabel and the Blue Hills is now ready. If you a copy, the price is £15.00 plus £1.50 post and packing. Please make out cheques to R.R.Potts and send to
The Curved Air Press
8 Sherard Road
London SE9 6EP
Latest news from Ghillian Potts about the final installement, Annabel and the Blue Hills:
We have no date for publication for Annabel and the Blue Hills but the editing of the text has finally been completed and we are waiting on the illustrations. It will be somewhat longer than the other Annabel sequels so we can have no firm price yet.
Latest news from Ghillian Potts about the final installement, Annabel and the Blue Hills:
We now have the text of Annabel and the Blue Hills from Hazel Dunn. There is a very great deal of work to be done on it, but I thought you would like to have advance notice. (Note that it is not Annabel IN the Blue Hills, as I had believed, but AND, as in the other books.) The editing and the illustrations may take a long time, but I'll keep you informed.
Brief synopsis:
Annabel gets into trouble when (among other things) she is taken with the desire to write a poem. This is "unauthorised magic" to the Fair Folk and they are horrified. Nick, who hates poetry, especially Annabel's 'absolute rot', has to appear to be angry. Everyone is upset and then, amazingly, the Great Ones ask for Annabel to go to the Blue Hills. The Queen begs Annabel, as a favour, to go with Bryony and Tawny, who are to be examined there. Tawny is terrified of the Great Ones but Annabel is happy to go. The Blue Hills are very different and Annabel is delighted with new freedom and makes new friends. She astonishes Tawny and even Bryony by her calm when questioned by the Great Ones. Of course, she gets into some trouble, plays rough games with the youngest pupils and quarrels with Bryony's friend Bane, who is also Tawny's tutor while she is in the Blue Hills. Eventually Tawny's work is approved and they go back to the Queen and the army. At the end, Annabel gets a tremendous surprise, one that she is not sure that she wants or likes.
The latest news about the long-awaited Annabel and Tawny reprint:
Annabel and Tawny reprints are finally available from Curved Air Press. Most have been preallocated to customers, but there are some spares. They cost £15.00
Russell Potts: The Curved Air Press
8 Sherard Road, London SE9 6EP
Tel: +44 (0)20 8850 6805 e-mail: Curvedairpress@aol.com
The latest news about Annabel and Curlie (I've got mine!), and the final Annabel in the Blue Hills:
Annabel and Curlie is now available from Curved Air Press!
Re Annabel in the Blue Hills. Hazel Dunn has a large editing job, as her mother had never revised the first draft. There is, she says, a tremendous lot of "soldiering" before Annabel gets to the Blue Hills and, although interesting, it does not advance the story. She is about half way through, so probably another year at least before publication.
Russell Potts: The Curved Air Press
8 Sherard Road, London SE9 6EP
Tel: +44 (0)20 8850 6805 e-mail: Curvedairpress@aol.com
The latest news about Annabel and Curlie, and a reprint of Annabel and Tawny:
Annabel and Curlie will be going to the printers soon.
Annabel and Tawny is now out of print. We have had a few desperate requests for copies, and so are thinking of a further short print run. Copies would be £20+pp. To gauge demand, please contact us if you too want a copy:
Russell Potts: The Curved Air Press
8 Sherard Road, London SE9 6EP
Tel: +44 (0)20 8850 6805 e-mail: Curvedairpress@aol.com
The latest news about the reprinted Annabel and Bryony:
We are happy to announce that the new edition of Annabel and Bryony is now available. Thanks to the generosity of Pauline Baynes, we have been able to include all the original illustrations and we have used the original dust wrapper for the full colour cover. The price is £18.00 plus p&p. which, in the UK, is £1.50. This is a larger book than Annabel and Tawny.
If you want a copy, please let us know.
Russell Potts: The Curved Air Press
8 Sherard Road, London SE9 6EP
Tel: +44 (0)20 8850 6805 e-mail: Curvedairpress@aol.com
And here, as of 19 February 2002 (updated with more information on 17 April 2002), is more good news sent to me by the publisher Russell Potts, at The Curved Air Press:
Sales of Annabel and Tawny have been modest, but satisfactory, in the sense that we have covered the production costs. There are a few copies left, after sales, review copies, gifts and copyright library copies. If you want one, at £12.00 plus p&p, please write, phone or e-mail to the address below.
Having successfully published this first sequel to Annabel and Bryony, we are sufficiently encouraged to go on with Annabel and Curlie, the third in the series, with the same illustrator. It should cost the same as the previous volume. The illustrations will take some time and no publication date can yet be set, but let us know if you want to place an order.
Annabel and Curlie picks up the story directly from the end of Annabel and Tawny and takes Annabel by accident into another world to encounter the Lordly Ones and their evil magic. This is horribly like the magic of the Fair Folk but used entirely selfishly, sucking the life out of the countryside. Fortunately, Curlie, now promoted to Commander, is with Annabel, together with two ensigns and a very small bugler. How they save themselves, the king of the country and his young brother until the Company of the Enchanters can find them again, is an exciting story with an interesting relationship to modern ecological thinking.
We have not yet seen the final volume, Annabel in the Blue Hills. The family like to keep the Mss in their own hands and will eventually let us have the text on a disc.
Several people have asked if there is any possibility of a new edition of Annabel and Bryony. We now have permission from the Phillips estate to use the text and from Pauline Baynes to reproduce her original illustrations and we would like to republish this book. It may not be possible to produce an edition for general sale, as the demand for this is likely to be even smaller, though we have had a number of requests for copies to give to grandchildren and god daughters. So we are looking into the possibility of producing a limited edition, by subscription only, which would necessarily be more expensive, perhaps as much as £20.00. It will be A5 paperback, uniform in style with the new publications, perhaps with the original dust wrapper design on the cover. If you are interested, please let us know by writing, e-mailing or telephoning to the address below.
Russell Potts: The Curved Air Press
8 Sherard Road, London SE9 6EP
Tel: +44 (0)20 8850 6805 e-mail: Curvedairpress@aol.com
So, now's the time to contact Russell to express your interest, in both the new Annabel and Curlie, and the reprinted Annabel and Bryony.
My sister and I have always been convinced that a sequel to Annabel and Bryony must exist, but neither searches of second hand bookshops, nor more recent hunts on the Web, have turned up anything. Then, in March 2001, Paul Annis, another Annabel and Bryony fan, who had found a mention of the book on my own Web pages, emailed me the following exciting information:
"On publication [Annabel and Bryony] received universally favourable reviews", the author's daughter Vivien Gambrill says, but the three sequels remained unpublished, although the author considered them all to be "better and more closely knit" than the first book.
The first of those sequels, Annabel and Tawny, will shortly be issued in a small edition by the Curved Air Press. If it is a success, the others will follow.
(I have no connection with Curved Air Press, other than an interest in seeing all the sequels published so that I can read them myself, so I have offered to help publicize the book.)
And here follows a statement from the publisher (which I have updated in the light of subsequent information):
The book is in A5 format, softback, perfect bound with a laminated picture cover, with 18 half- or full-page line illustrations. These are by Marjorie's daughter, Vivien Gambrill, and the cover design is by her granddaughter, Rachel Dunn.
There are approximately 260 pages in all. The ISBN is 1 873146 14 3. The cover price is £12.
To contact the publisher, write, telephone, or e-mail:
Russell & Ghillian Potts
The Curved Air Press
8 Sherard Road London
SE9 6EPTelephone: + 44 20 8850 6805
E-mail: russellpotts@aol.com
Three sequels! And the first about to be published! Oh frabjous day! I immediately emailed Russell Potts, to reserve two copies, for myself and my sister. (I'm really looking forward to seeing her face when I hand her her copy -- she as yet has no idea of its existence!) And then it was just a matter of waiting, appropriately enough "Till the summer!". In August 2001, the books dropped through my front door ...