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Bunchy #1
Bunchy
Little Bunchy lives all alone with her grandmother in a cottage in the country. It's quite a long walk to the village and Bunchy is too young for school yet so she has no one to play with. But Bunchy is never lonely because she has her own very special friends - the pastry girl, the Scribbles family, the naughty clothes-peg people and the little wooden sailor-doll. Set in a by-gone era, here are ten stories written with warmth and affection, by the author of Milly-Molly-Mandy.
- GenresChildrens
96 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1937
41 people want to read
About the author
Joyce Lankester Brisley
60 books43 followersJoyce Lankester Brisley (6 February 1896 – 1978) was an English writer. She is most noted for writing and illustrating the Milly-Molly-Mandy series, which were first printed in 1925 by the Christian Science Monitor.
The second of three daughters of George Brisley, a pharmacist, of Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex, Brisley's sisters - Ethel Constance, the eldest, and Nina Kennard, the youngest - were also illustrators. They studied art firstly at Hastings School of Art, then, following their parents' divorce in 1912 and the subsequent relocation of the girls and their father to Brixton, at Lambeth School of Art.
All three sisters illustrated postcards for the publisher Alfred Vivian Mansell & Co., with Nina (who also illustrated Elinor Brent-Dyer's Chalet School series) and Ethel becoming quite prolific. Brisley died in September 1978 at the age of 82.
The second of three daughters of George Brisley, a pharmacist, of Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex, Brisley's sisters - Ethel Constance, the eldest, and Nina Kennard, the youngest - were also illustrators. They studied art firstly at Hastings School of Art, then, following their parents' divorce in 1912 and the subsequent relocation of the girls and their father to Brixton, at Lambeth School of Art.
All three sisters illustrated postcards for the publisher Alfred Vivian Mansell & Co., with Nina (who also illustrated Elinor Brent-Dyer's Chalet School series) and Ethel becoming quite prolific. Brisley died in September 1978 at the age of 82.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 30, 2024
British author Joyce Lankester Brisley is best known for her Milly-Molly-Mandy books. Bunchy was published in 1937, and was Brisley’s second juvenile novel after her debut Milly-Molly-Mandy Stories (1928). She’d go on to write several more collections of stories about MMM, and just one more book about Bunchy.
Her Bunchy books seem more obscure, and there’s a distinct contrast between the two. The Milly-Molly-Mandy stories are about a little girl who lives in a cottage with her mother, father, aunt, uncle, grandmother, and grandfather. She spends time playing with her friends Susan and Billy, among others, and interacting with people in the village. In contrast, Bunchy lives in a cottage with her grandmother, and on the first page of the story we learn that Bunchy “had nobody to play with.” All of the Bunchy stories follow the same pattern where Bunchy invents friends and imagines interacting with them. She’s a highly creative child, though the first story has a vague creepiness to it. Bunchy’s grandmother leaves her some pastry dough to play with while she goes out (leaving a child not old enough to walk to school alone in the house—different time.) Bunchy makes a little girl and a cat out of dough, and both come to life. A dough house appears, fully furnished in dough furniture. The first creepy part is the pastry cat jumps up on the stove and bakes, and the pastry girl breaks the cat into pieces and they eat it. The second creepy thing is that the pastry girl shows Bunchy upstairs to her room, where she gets into bed and beckons Bunchy to join her. Bunchy doesn’t want to get in because “the bedclothes looked so cold and sticky” (they’re made of dough). Fortunately, grandmother arrives home, and Bunchy escapes the pastry house unmolested.
Overall, the stories are at once charming and poignant, as this isolated child makes playmates of pictures cut from magazines, the man in her grandmother’s snowglobe, clothespegs, pictures she draws, and the images her grandmother and great aunts pasted on a screen when they were girls. Perhaps one of the cutest stories is when Bunchy makes a shop in the yard with sticks, flower petals, and a crust of bread, and the flowers and a bird are her customers. The stick is bought by a flower that needs propping up, the bread by the bird who eats the crumbs, etc. In each story, Bunchy travels into the world of these make-believe friends, but she only stays until her grandmother calls her, and she never seems to be revisiting any of these friends. She is always an outsider, even in her imaginary worlds.
What’s odd is that both of these girls live in the same bucolic village. Though MMM is never mentioned in this book, MMM meets Bunchy and her grandmother in the story “Milly-Molly-Mandy Goes Sledging” in Milly-Molly-Mandy Again (1948). The MMM books all begin with a charming map of the village, but Bunchy’s cottage isn’t on it. Given that there’s an arrow pointing south to the hill where MMM and her friends go sledding, Bunchy’s cottage must be south of the village because her grandmother is walking her to school when they meet the other kids. As they take her to school and home, Bunchy is presumably younger as well. But what’s odd is that if the village kids can bring Bunchy home, their cottage can’t be that remote, and yet Bunchy is isolated from the other children.
I think Brisley wanted to contrast the two series, to depict a child surrounded by people, and contrast her with a lonely little girl to perhaps appeal to different young readers.
Not a lot is known about Brisley—there’s never been a biography about her. I did come across an academic paper, and a little information. Notably, Brisley grew up in Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex, until her parents divorced when she was sixteen. She then moved with her mother and sisters to a small flat in Brixton, London. There, she and her sisters began writing and drawing professionally to help support the family now that they’d lost their father’s financial support. It made me think of the Bronte sisters and Louisa May Alcott, other women writers who had to write to support themselves and their families. The Brisleys were Christian Scientists, and they submitted their stories to the American magazine Christian Scientist Monitor. Her books all read like a collection of short stories centered on the same central character, like episodes of a TV show.
Her Bunchy books seem more obscure, and there’s a distinct contrast between the two. The Milly-Molly-Mandy stories are about a little girl who lives in a cottage with her mother, father, aunt, uncle, grandmother, and grandfather. She spends time playing with her friends Susan and Billy, among others, and interacting with people in the village. In contrast, Bunchy lives in a cottage with her grandmother, and on the first page of the story we learn that Bunchy “had nobody to play with.” All of the Bunchy stories follow the same pattern where Bunchy invents friends and imagines interacting with them. She’s a highly creative child, though the first story has a vague creepiness to it. Bunchy’s grandmother leaves her some pastry dough to play with while she goes out (leaving a child not old enough to walk to school alone in the house—different time.) Bunchy makes a little girl and a cat out of dough, and both come to life. A dough house appears, fully furnished in dough furniture. The first creepy part is the pastry cat jumps up on the stove and bakes, and the pastry girl breaks the cat into pieces and they eat it. The second creepy thing is that the pastry girl shows Bunchy upstairs to her room, where she gets into bed and beckons Bunchy to join her. Bunchy doesn’t want to get in because “the bedclothes looked so cold and sticky” (they’re made of dough). Fortunately, grandmother arrives home, and Bunchy escapes the pastry house unmolested.
Overall, the stories are at once charming and poignant, as this isolated child makes playmates of pictures cut from magazines, the man in her grandmother’s snowglobe, clothespegs, pictures she draws, and the images her grandmother and great aunts pasted on a screen when they were girls. Perhaps one of the cutest stories is when Bunchy makes a shop in the yard with sticks, flower petals, and a crust of bread, and the flowers and a bird are her customers. The stick is bought by a flower that needs propping up, the bread by the bird who eats the crumbs, etc. In each story, Bunchy travels into the world of these make-believe friends, but she only stays until her grandmother calls her, and she never seems to be revisiting any of these friends. She is always an outsider, even in her imaginary worlds.
What’s odd is that both of these girls live in the same bucolic village. Though MMM is never mentioned in this book, MMM meets Bunchy and her grandmother in the story “Milly-Molly-Mandy Goes Sledging” in Milly-Molly-Mandy Again (1948). The MMM books all begin with a charming map of the village, but Bunchy’s cottage isn’t on it. Given that there’s an arrow pointing south to the hill where MMM and her friends go sledding, Bunchy’s cottage must be south of the village because her grandmother is walking her to school when they meet the other kids. As they take her to school and home, Bunchy is presumably younger as well. But what’s odd is that if the village kids can bring Bunchy home, their cottage can’t be that remote, and yet Bunchy is isolated from the other children.
I think Brisley wanted to contrast the two series, to depict a child surrounded by people, and contrast her with a lonely little girl to perhaps appeal to different young readers.
Not a lot is known about Brisley—there’s never been a biography about her. I did come across an academic paper, and a little information. Notably, Brisley grew up in Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex, until her parents divorced when she was sixteen. She then moved with her mother and sisters to a small flat in Brixton, London. There, she and her sisters began writing and drawing professionally to help support the family now that they’d lost their father’s financial support. It made me think of the Bronte sisters and Louisa May Alcott, other women writers who had to write to support themselves and their families. The Brisleys were Christian Scientists, and they submitted their stories to the American magazine Christian Scientist Monitor. Her books all read like a collection of short stories centered on the same central character, like episodes of a TV show.
January 25, 2022
The sweetest book with the sweetest illustrations! I adored every second of reading this children's book. I love the Milly Molly Mandy series, but I feel as if I almost love Bunchy more. I have a lovely 1937 vintage copy of this book (sadly, without dust jacket) and reading this old edition (which has a little girl's name inscribed on the inside as Emma Broomseld (sp?) was such a treat.
Joyce Lankester Brisley is my favorite type of author who can fuse everyday, ordinary activities and charming illustrations together to form a collection of wondrous, fairy-tale stories that bring delight and joy into a reader's heart.
Highly, highly recommended!
Joyce Lankester Brisley is my favorite type of author who can fuse everyday, ordinary activities and charming illustrations together to form a collection of wondrous, fairy-tale stories that bring delight and joy into a reader's heart.
Highly, highly recommended!
August 29, 2024
Interesting! Very clever drawings.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews