| Martin
Aitchison |
 |
| Nationality - English |
Profession - Illustrator |
| Date of birth - 1919
|
Date of death - Still with us |
| Place of birth
- Birmingham : |
|
Martin Aitchison was born in Birmingham in 1919. He attended Ellesmere College in Shropshire, where his serious deafness, hindered his education, so much so that he left at the age of fifteen to develop his artistic talents at Birmingham School of Art and the Slade School of Art. It was at Slade, Martin met, and later married fellow art student Dorothy Self.
Because of his deafness Martin was excluded from the Services in World War II, but after Dunkirk he felt he could no longer remain an art student and enrolled with Vickers Aircraft as a technical illustrator, producing service manuals. He was also involved in producing drawings for Barnes Wallis?s top-secret ?Bouncing Bomb?, used in the famous Dam Buster raid.
|
|
After the War, Martin became a commercial artist, free-lancing for a wide range of advertising clients. He also illustrated women?s magazines, including bestseller Vogue.
In 1952 he began working for the ?Eagle? magazine for boys, illustrating the ?Luck of the Legion?, ?Lost World?, ?Hornblower? and other serialised adventure strips.
In 1963, Martin left ?Eagle? to work for Ladybird Books, just in time to illustrate some of the Key Words Reading Scheme.
Martin Aitchison's family knew Ladybird's Editorial Director, Douglas Keen, and knew that they were looking for artists, so Martin did a specimen which was rejected - he then did another which was this time accepted and thus began Martin's career with Ladybird. The illustration that was accepted appears on page 51 of this title.
Martin was paid just ?21 for each illustration in this book - 24 illustrations in all - total wage for illustrating 'A First Book of Saints' was ?504.
Read Helen's Interview with Martin Aitchison.
Martin also illustrated some of the ?Well Loved Tales? and ?Puddle Lane? books. His wife Dorothy wrote some of these books with the most popular being the three books of the ?Great Artists? series.
Martin stopped work for Ladybird Books in 1987 and after working for a number of other clients, including the Oxford University Press, he retired, to return to his early love of painting and drawing. |
|
|
Martin Aitchison
bibliography - 40
listed |
|
 |
Click
on one of the Martin
Aitchison books below
for details on synopsis, first edition issue
points, a picture of the book, and collectors
information |
|
| Martin
Aitchison books Wee
have for sale |
|
|
All
the Martin Aitchison
books listed below are currently for sale
on our website - we may have some others in
stock so please ask if you don't see the title
you're looking for. |
|
|
|
|
|
