Pauline Baynes

Aug 7 2008 by David Charters, Liverpool Daily Post

THERE was perhaps a sadness hidden in the smile of the white-haired lady from the lovely cottage, whose piercing imagination opened the world behind the blinds, where children could see everything and touch nothing.

Her job was to turn words into pictures, so that their stories could live in our minds.

And she became the favourite illustrator of JRR Tolkien, doing his drawings for Farmer Giles of Ham, The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, Smith of Wootton Major, Leaf by Niggle and Bilbo’s Last Song.

Tolkien had hoped that she would also illustrate Lord of the Rings. In the end, this was not entirely possible, though she produced poster maps and her slipcase design for three volumes of the work was adapted as the cover for the original, door-stopper single volume, held by hippies with the pride of a travelling preacher with his Bible.

Tolkien was always appreciative of Pauline Baynes’s work, choosing her for Farmer Giles, a novella featuring knights and dragons. His text had been reduced to “a commentary on the drawings,” he noted. They were more than illustrations, but “a collateral theme”.

Pauline gained at least as much fame for her illustrations in CS Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, though the achievement of fame was never an ambition. In fact, she recalled that the wonder- ful work of Ernest Shepherd had left him associated only with Pooh and Piglet, and Toad of Toad Hall.

She was born in Brighton to Frederick Baynes and his wife, Jessie. His work in the Civil Service took the young family to India, where he was commissioner in Agra.

After five years there, she returned to an unhappy boarding school education, before having a much better time at Farnham School of Art, Surrey, and then the Slade, in London.

In the war, Pauline was an assistant model-maker with the Royal Engineers’ camouflage department. At this time, she also began her book illustrations.

In 1961, there was a knock on the door of her cottage in Dockinfield, Surrey. Standing before her was the local dog-meat delivery man, Fritz Otto Gasch, who had been a PoW. They married weeks later.

Otto died in 1988. Their only son had been stillborn.

Loved by children and adults alike, Pauline, who gave us the lion of Narnia, worked beautifully until shortly before her death.

Pauline Baynes, illustrator;born July 22, 1930,died August 1, 2008.