Orlando the Marmalade Cat: A Seaside Holiday

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In Paris, in the 1920s, she met Cedric Morris and Lett Haines. She was later a frequent visitor to their Benton End community in Essex, centre of the East Anglian school of painting, where art, gastronomy and horticulture mingled. She had a long liaison with the bisexual Haines, who called her "Moggy". He appears in Orlando's Silver Wedding (1944) as the cloth-capped cat napper whose feelings for the feline carry him away. Orlando, the beautiful marmalade cat with eyes like "twin green gooseberries", made his first picture book debut in 1938, to instant acclaim. His adventures grew into a series of eighteen books which, with their exciting, humorous stories and distinctive illustrations full of interesting detail and visual jokes, have become classics of children's literature. They are now reissued in editions that faithfully reproduce the elegant folio format of the originals, to delight a new generations of children and bring nostalgic pleasure to all Orlando's former admirers.

Kathleen Hale died in Bristol on 26 January 2000, aged 101. [8] Bibliography [ edit ] Orlando series [ edit ]She married Douglas McClean, a young doctor working in medical research. They settled in Hertfordshire where they could bring up their two young sons and entertain their friends. She created Orlando and his world to entertain her children at bedtime. Orlando The Marmalade Cat 'with eyes like twin gooseberries' was one of the classic children's book characters of the 1940s and 1950s. The stories are known for their quirky wit and extravagant illustrations. They combine adventure with friendship and family life. As the creator of Orlando, Kathleen was awarded the OBE in 1976.

BBC, Oct 1994: listen to Kathleen Hale speaking as a castaway on Desert Island Discs aged 96, following the publication of her book. (For those unfamiliar with this long-running programme's premise and format, see Wikipedia.) Kathleen Hale was a British children's book author and illustrator, whose most enduring creation is a series of books featuring the adventures of Orlando, a marmalade (red tabby, or 'ginger') cat with a wife called Grace and three kittens — Pansy, Blanche and the mischievous Tinkle. After a childhood in which she showed promise in art, Kathleen spent time in London in the artistic circles of the 1920s, until she married and the family moved in the early 1930s to a large country house in Hertfordshire, where they raised two sons and kept various animals, including cats.I still think they are excellent children's books, and Kathleen's own illustrations are superb. The year each title was first published will be found in the image captions. The stamp ( top right) was issued by Great Britain in 1994 as one of a set of 10 Greetings stamps depicting characters from well-known British children's stories. There are many characters in the Orlando series, many of them minor. Some of the minor characters reappear in different books in the series (for example Mr. Cattermole), while others appear once. Orlando the Judge (1950) - When Mr. Gorgon suspects Mr. Zola of stealing his cheese, Orlando is in despair that his two friends are arguing. He is then called to Judge Wiggins, who has a cold and is not getting better as his arrogant pet cat named Fluffy takes everything he needs to eat. Orlando eventually takes his place while Grace boils Wiggins some milk, and the kittens investigate the mystery of the missing cheese. At the end of the book, it is revealed that Fluffy stole the cheese for his mouse-trap (for he is frightened of mice), and he eventually becomes a guard for the Old Mice's Home as punishment. Mr. Gorgon and Mr. Zola become friends again, and Wiggins' cold begins to get better.

Hale was the castaway on Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio 4 on 30 October 1994. She was interviewed by Sue Lawley and chose the Catalan song " Cobla La Principal de Peralada [ ca]" as well as pieces by Anton Karas, Gertrude Lawrence and Scott Joplin as her favourite records, Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time as her choice of book, and a djellaba made from golden cloth as her luxury item. [7]

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Grace - The wife of Orlando, she and the kittens almost always accompany Orlando. She often wears large hats and skirts, and once wore a wedding-dress made of fish on their (Orlando's and Grace's) wedding day, and in Orlando's Home Life wore a fur coat in the pattern of a leopard's fur. She is a tabby cat, with a small, stubby nose like a ripe apricot. [3]