Monday 15 October 2012

Motorway Meg and Mog

Having recently enjoyed an afternoon at a motorway service station, I was delighted to discover, from this obituary of the writer Helen Nicoll who sadly died last week, that the classic Meg and Mog books were conceived over long sessions at Membury Services on the M4 with her brilliant illustrator Jan Pienkowski.
As well as Meg and Mog, the formidable Miss Nicoll also gifted the world Cover to Cover audio books, which were not only impeccable complete readings but invariably perfect matches of reader and text. I enjoyed many of them back in the days of the cassette player, and in some cases - the Trollopes, for example - I actually found them preferable to reading the books. The BBC bought Cover to Cover in 2000 - since when the archive seems to have disappeared, though retroprogressive delvers might still find some of the cassettes online.

2 comments:

  1. Oh yes, Cover to Cover audio books were marvellous. That equally wonderful company, Travellers Tales, used to loan them to me regularly in the good old audio-tape days. I do hope the archive re-emerges sometime in the future.

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  2. Ah, the great Motorway Services children's classics.

    Who can forget Biggles Complains About the Overpriced Lasagne at Strensham Northbound, or the great Five Stop for a Quick Wee at Newport Pagnell?

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