What do you think?
Rate this book
Dandy
Written and illustrated by Roger Smith, this volume seems to be a scarce one from the Hornsey College of Arts Press which had a reputation for being 'an iconic British art institution, renowned for its experimental and progressive approach to art and design education'.
This story is about a lion who escapes from the zoo and makes merry in fashionable London until he is discovered to be a lion!
This story is about a lion who escapes from the zoo and makes merry in fashionable London until he is discovered to be a lion!
24 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1955
About the author
Roger Smith
271 books16 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
May 5, 2023
Bibliographically this is an interesting volume written and illustrated by Roger Smith. It appears to be scarce (possibly a one-off or small print run) as it emanates from an imprint that reads 'Hornsey College of Arts Press'. The Hornsey school of Art, founded in 1880 by Charles Swinstead, an artist and teacher, was once a famous school with a reputation for being 'an iconic British art institution, renowned for its experimental and progressive approach to art and design education'. This book appears to be by one of the students, or masters, and is bound in cloth with delightful what appear to be lithographic coloured illustrations. I cannot find it mentioned anywhere!
This story is about a lion who is unhappy at the zoo where he sees other animals having much more freedom than he does. He, therefore, makes a decision to engineer an escape. Dandy, for that was his name, engineers an ingenious method of getting out of his cage and makes merry his way into fashionable London.
He decides that he must hide the fact that he is a lion so, using techniques that his mother once used on his hair, he designs a very modern style. He meets a lady of leisure, Lady Montmorency, who takes a fancy to his hairstyle and longs for one similar. Dandy tells her he is a hairdresser and she meets him in a location that he arranges and gives her a similar style to his own.
Lady Montmorency's friends all love the style so they all go to Dandy and have their hair styled in similar fashion. Suddenly Dandy becomes a celebrity and rejoices in the glory for some time. But eventually he become fed up with the life style so he develops a low profile and in doing so he shaves off his hair.
When Lady Montmorency next sees him she is horrified, saying, 'A lion, it's a lion' at which point dandy jumps out of the window and disappears. He resurfaces away from London and ends up in a monastery with the monks where he settles down and never misses London and his old life!
The illustrations have quite a charm and are superbly coloured, making the volume quite desirable - not that I will part with it!
This story is about a lion who is unhappy at the zoo where he sees other animals having much more freedom than he does. He, therefore, makes a decision to engineer an escape. Dandy, for that was his name, engineers an ingenious method of getting out of his cage and makes merry his way into fashionable London.
He decides that he must hide the fact that he is a lion so, using techniques that his mother once used on his hair, he designs a very modern style. He meets a lady of leisure, Lady Montmorency, who takes a fancy to his hairstyle and longs for one similar. Dandy tells her he is a hairdresser and she meets him in a location that he arranges and gives her a similar style to his own.
Lady Montmorency's friends all love the style so they all go to Dandy and have their hair styled in similar fashion. Suddenly Dandy becomes a celebrity and rejoices in the glory for some time. But eventually he become fed up with the life style so he develops a low profile and in doing so he shaves off his hair.
When Lady Montmorency next sees him she is horrified, saying, 'A lion, it's a lion' at which point dandy jumps out of the window and disappears. He resurfaces away from London and ends up in a monastery with the monks where he settles down and never misses London and his old life!
The illustrations have quite a charm and are superbly coloured, making the volume quite desirable - not that I will part with it!
Displaying 1 of 1 review