The Ant and Bee books which we came across when our children were young became a staple of our reading to them and their early reading. However, when you try to discover them today--in the real world or the virtual world--they are gone, and the scant information that I had found about their author Angela Banner is even more scant. I have Internet wandered a number of times over the years, but this time I will capture my wonderment:
[If you come here not knowing who Ant and Bee are, check out this one bookseller's nice page with pictures and story summaries of a few of the 13 books in the full series.]
Instead of Google, I start today with Wikipedia. Guess what? Angela Banner does not exist as an article at all! Not a single keystroke of biography. All that exists is a listing of the 13 Ant & Bee books with a very short introduction. Obviously, both of these can be easily remedied by editing but my focus today is rather on this search. So, on to Google.
![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_scJ4u5rhnL-jL_QMengo8IrrCMEl9yqptX2B2bHadlEBT_BbRDz8A_aZXWZdsgMuU_CnIzBTr9Etta4Mv0NiX2cxFJuomY5_CZlOnM5A=s0-d)
First, do we go for finding Angela Banner or her books? I opt for the author, and luckily get a hit on someone's efforts--"The unOfficial Ant and Bee Homepage". Nothing about Angela Banner, but I do learn that Ant and Bee books are to be re-released in the UK. The note is dated January 28, 2008, but following the link to Amazon.co.uk they are taking orders for two books coming out in 2013! [In, US, you can preorder: Ant & Bee
and More & More Ant & Bee
.] [Caution: Added August 1, 2013: Read this!] Otherwise, this page has links to short personal memories of the books and to pictures and brief paragraphs on Ant, Bee, and Kind Dog, the principal animal characters in the books.
Cool, but nothing about Angela Banner at all. For folks just providing comments, another Google link leads to Goodreads pages for each of the reviews, but otherwise the links are to other persons named Angela Banner or to used book sites. The next good link is to The Pointless Museum which has scanned all of Ant and Bee Go Shopping--the cheapest available copy on Amazon being $60, so go and get your free read (showing the original cover).
On the second page of Google hits, I finally find a used book site that lists a birth year--1923--for Angela Banner. So, she was born!
On page three, I find a UK illustrator's blog post. Lottie Stoddart, on a tear after not finding her books in her parent's attic, goes Internet wandering herself. So, Lottie tells me that Angela Banner is not her real name, but rather "Angela Mary Maddison" and also reports her discovery of a biography available as an e-document from Amazon (US only). But $9.95 for four pages seems not be worth it as much to me as it was to Lottie, so I will try to discover more myself. Lottie's best find, however, has nothing to do with Angela Banner, but with Ant & Bee's re-creation as a clutch purse held by Tilda Swinton.
...on and on through page 10...no more hits outside book sellers and Goodreads. Following, Lottie's lead, I return and search for "Angela Mary Maddison". I now find a corporate trace of her existence: She was alive and appointed as a director of "Ant and Bee Limited" on May 28, 1991, providing an address, but otherwise stating that company is dissolved. I also find that on behalf of the "Ant and Bee Partnership," she has four UK trademarks, including one of her signature Angela Banner:
[Also find that this trademark was filed in 2002 and was up for renewal in 2012.]
Then, I find from the London Gazette that on April 3, 1968, by Deed Poll date May 8, 1968, she dropped the surname "Parsons". So what is that, she was married and had taken the name "Angela Mary Parsons" for a while? The address matches that of the corporate trace above (24 Cranley Mews, London S.W.7). But reading this page some more, I find also that other Maddisons dropped the Parsons name also that same day: Danne Mary Diarmid Maddison ("an infant spinster, and a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies by birth, ") and John Lincke Maddison ("Medical Student, a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies by registration")--her children?
Off the grid, I search published sources and find the following short personal information in Gale Group's "Contemporary Authors Online":
[If you come here not knowing who Ant and Bee are, check out this one bookseller's nice page with pictures and story summaries of a few of the 13 books in the full series.]
Instead of Google, I start today with Wikipedia. Guess what? Angela Banner does not exist as an article at all! Not a single keystroke of biography. All that exists is a listing of the 13 Ant & Bee books with a very short introduction. Obviously, both of these can be easily remedied by editing but my focus today is rather on this search. So, on to Google.
Cool, but nothing about Angela Banner at all. For folks just providing comments, another Google link leads to Goodreads pages for each of the reviews, but otherwise the links are to other persons named Angela Banner or to used book sites. The next good link is to The Pointless Museum which has scanned all of Ant and Bee Go Shopping--the cheapest available copy on Amazon being $60, so go and get your free read (showing the original cover).
On the second page of Google hits, I finally find a used book site that lists a birth year--1923--for Angela Banner. So, she was born!
On page three, I find a UK illustrator's blog post. Lottie Stoddart, on a tear after not finding her books in her parent's attic, goes Internet wandering herself. So, Lottie tells me that Angela Banner is not her real name, but rather "Angela Mary Maddison" and also reports her discovery of a biography available as an e-document from Amazon (US only). But $9.95 for four pages seems not be worth it as much to me as it was to Lottie, so I will try to discover more myself. Lottie's best find, however, has nothing to do with Angela Banner, but with Ant & Bee's re-creation as a clutch purse held by Tilda Swinton.
...on and on through page 10...no more hits outside book sellers and Goodreads. Following, Lottie's lead, I return and search for "Angela Mary Maddison". I now find a corporate trace of her existence: She was alive and appointed as a director of "Ant and Bee Limited" on May 28, 1991, providing an address, but otherwise stating that company is dissolved. I also find that on behalf of the "Ant and Bee Partnership," she has four UK trademarks, including one of her signature Angela Banner:
[Also find that this trademark was filed in 2002 and was up for renewal in 2012.]
Then, I find from the London Gazette that on April 3, 1968, by Deed Poll date May 8, 1968, she dropped the surname "Parsons". So what is that, she was married and had taken the name "Angela Mary Parsons" for a while? The address matches that of the corporate trace above (24 Cranley Mews, London S.W.7). But reading this page some more, I find also that other Maddisons dropped the Parsons name also that same day: Danne Mary Diarmid Maddison ("an infant spinster, and a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies by birth, ") and John Lincke Maddison ("Medical Student, a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies by registration")--her children?
Off the grid, I search published sources and find the following short personal information in Gale Group's "Contemporary Authors Online":
Married name legally changed from Parsons to Maddison, 1968; born May 14, 1923, in Bombay, India; daughter of Sydney Howard (an engineer) and Iris Lydia (MacDiarmid) Phipps-Lincke; married Lionel Parsons (an army officer), March 24, 1941; children: John Lincke Maddison, Danne Mary Diarmid Maddison. Education:Attended Ancaster Gate and House (boarding school), Bexhill, Sussex, England, 1933-37. Politics: Liberal. Religion: Roman Catholic. Avocational Interests: Painting.
For a separate day also is the mystery of the one other Ant and Bee item: the "Ant and Bee Big Buy Bag" which I hope to see one day! [EDIT: And now HAVE: check it out.]
Amazing sleuth work! I'm the creator of the UnOfficial Ant and Bee Homepage, which I made simple because, as you found, the internet was lacking any real information on these books. One day I will update the content on that page with more tidbits I've found in the past 4 years. When I do I'd like to include the info you've dug up on the elusive author. Would you mind?
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for this - and the big buy bag post.
ReplyDeleteI've been limbering up to research (and then make!) a short film about Ant & Bee/Angela Banner for a while, and your wandering gave me a good nudge. If you like, I'll keep you posted as to my progress - the whole thing is fascinating, and something of a challenge...
Nick
I have a hunch that she lives with her son in Lewes. There was an electoral roll record for them both in 2011. Some Telegraph or Guardian journalist really could do a nice portrait of her to time with the launch of the reprints of her exquisite books.
ReplyDeleteJoanna
Hello... I am Angela Banner's niece and I live in Los Angeles. Knowing my aunt and family, she likes to remain elusive. I have visited her many times and have written often. She is an extremely private person, but incredibly wonderful. She is my Father's sister.
DeleteFiona Lincke
ps: any scoop on the illustrator Bryan Ward?
ReplyDeleteI'm looking for more info on the illustrator too. We have an original illustration from when my husband was a small child in the early 1960's
DeleteAn original Ant and Bee illustration? or something else? Definitely the first I've heard of one. The illustrations in the new editions are a mockery to his work. Well, I took your note to start searching again and have found him. I will put what I've found into a new blog post and add a link from here when done.
DeleteSee https://internetwondering.blogspot.com/2021/11/ant-and-bee-bryan-ward-filling-in.html
DeleteHello... I am Angela Banner's niece and I live in Los Angeles. Knowing my aunt and family, she likes to remain elusive. I have visited her many times and have written often. She is an extremely private person, but incredibly wonderful. She is my Father's sister.
ReplyDeleteFiona Lincke
Great to find this site as I have an elderly friend who is very interested in the Ant & Bee books, having used them to teach her children to read. Aware of the new UK editions (Egmont), my friend was surprised to learn that these have been illustrated by Angela Banner herself and, indeed, that the original illustration was split - with some books being illustrated by Bryan Ward and others by the author.
ReplyDeleteMy friend is keen to discover why Bryan Ward did not illustrate the whole series, as she is particularly fond of Ward's illustrations. She has asked me if I could try to find out so as to satisfy her curiosity.
Does any one know anything about the illustration of the Ant & Bee books?
I don't know, but to reissue books beloved in childhood with different (and to my mind vastly inferior) illustrations is a great disappointment and betrayal. I imagine it was done to avoid a legal battle with Bryan Ward or his estate regarding royalties.
DeleteJust as bad as the illustrations in the reissued books is the rewrite of the text: https://internetwondering.blogspot.com/2013/08/oh-my-what-have-they-done-republished.html
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteI am very lucky I have two Ant and Bee big buy bag. All of the vintage books in great condition and a copy if the 1956 book by Angela too called Mr Curly Fork and Mr fork a very rare find xx
ReplyDeleteThat is rare indeed. There are a few copies in libraries around the world, but I have never seen one for sale. Would be great just to have a PDF that folks could see!
DeleteMr Fork and Curly Fork : A Time Story has to be one of the most elusive titles. I can find practically no reference to it and no images on the Internet.
ReplyDeleteMy grandmother had a fabric bound copy and I loved it as a child, but it is well over 20 years since I last set eyes on it.
If anyone can recommend any links where I might find images of the book (particularly the page where one of the forks dances with a carrot), I'd be most appreciative!