31 January, 2005
Dear Egmont Books,
First, thanks to Christopher Awdry for giving us this opportunity to make our views known. I run a website: The Real Lives of Thomas which you could say has a "conservative" viewpoint concerning the Railway Series (RWS), i.e. it refers to RWS details rather than TV series details mainly. It might interest you to know I get about 200 hits a day from RWS fans of all ages. Other interesting data is that through affiliate links to Amazon, I've been tracing some prices of unavailable RWS books, and prices of over GPB100 for some of Christopher's titles would indicate that there is a market for them.
I have seen your reissues and I think they are nicely made, but I would venture to suggest that the original format is better. Basically because of the way they were written with a page of text having its matching illustration, with a "surprise effect" - from Gordon showing upwith a goods train in story 2 of "Three Railway Engines" to the red-faced Henry pulling old tenders in "Enterprising Engines".
As to books being in/out of print, I was very sad to have to explain the plot of "Mountain Engines" to the current Snowdon Mountain Railway General Manager Alan Kendal. These later books of the Rev. Wilbert are beautiful books and classics, and I think silly to suppress their isolated publication just because they haven't been televised. As to Christopher's books, I haven't read many of them, since they are indeed out of print, but what I have read, and other plot synopses and pictures made available by friends, would indicate they are a worthy "New Testament" to the canon of the Rev. Wilbert's Old.
Thus, I think you should reissue all 40 books of the RWS in the traditional format. My 4-yo loves my old RWS books and I'm tired of saying "put that down, it's a First Edition," I'd love to get him the books again so he can read without fear of damaging them. I understand that the laminated hardbacks are expensive to make and perhaps carry a RRP beyond the means of some (especially as a collection), but they have also been available as cheaper paperbacks.
The Complete Collection is a fine book in terms of collecting all the texts and pictures, and using the original art work is a great touch. If it is to be redone, I would not crop the artwork and match the "page" of text which goes with each pic . Even in present format, tho, it is great value for money, and adding Christopher's books or producing them as a separate omnibus would be a good idea.
Thus with my ideas, I could conclude that the Rev. Wilbert and Christopher, as classic children's writers on a par with AA Milne or Kenneth Graham, can be appreciated in original format just as the above two writers can now, and that this needn't detract from any TV tie-ins you would be marketing to a different audience perhaps.
Sincerely,
Martin Clutterbuck