| Sylvia
Creche |
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| Nationality - English |
Profession - Author |
| Date of birth - 13 Jul 1951
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Date of death - Still with us |
| Place of birth
- Maidenhead : Berkshire |
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Sylvia Creche was born in Maidenhead, Berkshire in 1951, but grew up in the village of Havering-atte-Bower in Essex. She was a compulsive writer from around the age of 7, and in this rural setting, steeped in history, her imagination became inspired. She wrote many short stories and one act plays, centred around fictitious 'historical events' encouraging friends in the village to participate in the acting out of scenes and the performing of solo recitations.
Aged 11 years Sylvia became a pupil of the local comprehensive school renowned for its patronage of the Arts. Within this creative atmosphere she was encouraged to feed her inventive imagination; to the point of total indulgence it seemed.
Her parents intervened, insisting that their daughter receive a more formal preparation as a disciplined approach to life.
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The protesting Sylvia was duly enroled into a secretarial college and
from this alien and somewhat austere institution she attempted to master the art of 'shorthand and typing'. But it was too soulless an environment for her creative mind and she slowly withdrew into herself, her vivid imagination put on hold, whilst she reluctantly learned the skills of becoming a 'decent secretary'.
As one would expect, Sylvia did not become a decent secretary, although she had managed to shorthand and type her way through a fair amount of jobs.
With her restless spirit, never too far removed from her writing, she married a much travelled engineer at the age of 19 and went to live at Aldburgh in Suffolk. Here she stayed for 4 years duly giving birth to two daughters, whilst her husband worked at the Sizewell Power Station.
It was
during the move to their new house in Brentwood, Essex that Sylvia was to regain her creative instincts. During the usual clean-up - following in the wake of the removals - a little field mouse was blown out through the hose of the vacuum cleaner! Had she known then of the heartache awaiting her as she eventually strove to become published, Sylvia would probably have settled for devoted motherhood, buried the field mouse and carried on with the vacuuming. But 'Mervyn' had been conceived. So with his adventures
bursting through the top of her head, she joyfully became their compulsive literate slave.
Why she created these stories in the form of rhyming couplets she did not know: she just did. Rejections became the norm, so she formed her own publishing company, Creche Publications, selling the first MM story to WH Smiths (they bought 5.000), but most outlets wanted a series and it became too big a project for such a small set-up. She and her artist friend Geoff went their separate ways as Sylvia became editor of the
Noddy Comic, adapting Enid Blyton's Brer Rabbit stories and running the Noddy Noddler Club.
But her MM stories were still doing the rounds, still being rejected: she kept offering - sometimes to the same publisher in the same month. It became a habit. Meanwhile her short stories about a knitting pig, hiccupping giraffe and many others were being published thus giving her the incentive to soldier on with MM. Then a chance broadcast by an L.B.C. Presenter in 1978 (filling in a gap during a Party Political Broadcast) changed her life when the first Mervyn Mouse story was read on air.
Working in his studio in Leigh-on-Sea sat one, Roger Twinn a professional illustrator, who happened to be listening to the broadcast. Receiving a bit of a jolt when the Programme Presenter's dulcet tones announced, 'And now, from the pen of our own Sylvia Creche, we bring you.... Mervyn Mouse!' Roger picked up his pencil and began to draw... A few weeks later his illustration of her beloved character found its way onto the reception desk of the London Broadcasting Corporation: MM was finally born.
Meanwhile, unbeknown to Sylvia , Ladybird Books had already decided to place the rhyming Mervyn story into their popular series 401 (one of the first established) and contacted her. She promptly put down the phone on them as she thought it was a prank. Further letters proved otherwise and together with Roger and his illustration of Mervyn she travelled to the Ladybird headquarters at Loughborough to meet the editor. Whilst being aware that Ladybird never paid royalties to their authors - they 'bought' words - she and Roger decided to let them publish MM as it 'would get the character
known'. It was with a heavy heart that Sylvia finally signed 'the contract' on the 14th February 1979. It was Valentines Day and her husband had bought her a little chocolate mouse nestled inside a bunch of red roses.
She duly received the Ladybird flat fee of ?300.pounds being ?150 per story. Roger received ?2.500 pounds for designing and illustrating the Ladybird book: it received the Best Designed Children's Book Award for 1981.
The Ladybird Book entitled Mervyn Mouse was launched on the 1st April 1980 and sold to all English speaking countries, although Sylvia had been led to believe that the book would be translated/adapted for foreign editions. By the following year Ladybird requested two more of the MM stories - namely, Mervyn Mouse Goes Camping and Mervyn Mouse At The Zoo: Sylvia returned their cheque - again for ?300. pounds (they were suitably dismayed). But she was adamant and took the rest of the stories to Methuen who published the 4 new rhyming MM stories in the October of 1982 followed by book/tapes and an Omnibus in 1984: both she and Roger shared the royalties.
In 1985 Roger went to live in New Zealand with his wife Maggie and baby daughter Laila, who could possibly be reading the MM stories to her children as we read the rodent's history. Sylvia, who had been studying to become a
LAMDA teacher, (London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art) finally qualified in 1986. Shortly after she opened her own speech and drama school where she is still entering children for poetry and acting exams using the MM books for teaching purposes. Only recently has she discovered, through various websites, that Mervyn Mouse is enjoying attention once again, being in the top three most requested used Ladybird Books in Series 401. A few years ago, encouraged and helped by her students, they made a video of 'MM Goes Camping' just for the fun of it. MM will be 25 years old in April! |
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Sylvia Creche
bibliography - 7
listed |
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