{"id":800,"date":"2019-12-20T13:00:57","date_gmt":"2019-12-20T13:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/childrensliteratureinnewcastle\/?p=800"},"modified":"2019-12-20T13:00:59","modified_gmt":"2019-12-20T13:00:59","slug":"festive-fun-at-the-seven-stories-archive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/childrensliteratureinnewcastle\/festive-fun-at-the-seven-stories-archive\/","title":{"rendered":"Festive Fun at the Seven Stories Archive"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Lauren Aspery<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s that time of year again, and nothing says Christmas like the scatological humour of children\u2019s author and illustrator, Nicholas Allan. I was fortunate enough to spend a day at Seven Stories rummaging through his uncatalogued Christmas archive last Winter, and one year later I thought I\u2019d take the opportunity to share what I found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you don\u2019t know Nicholas Allan,\nhe is best known for his toilet-tastic titles including The Queen\u2019s\nKnickers, The Giant\u2019s Loo Roll, Cinderella\u2019s Bum, The Royal Nappy, <\/em>as well\nas his more festive work, like Jesus\u2019 Christmas Party, Father Christmas\nNeeds a Wee <\/em>and Father Christmas Comes up Trumps. <\/em>Having been\nfortunate enough to vicariously enjoy these books via a younger sibling, I was\nabsolutely thrilled to learn I could put them to use for an undergraduate\nassignment on Lucy Pearson\u2019s Children\u2019s Literature Module, \u2018Home, Heritage,\nHistory\u2019. In fact, I ended up enjoying my day at the archive so much, that I\nended up sticking around to do an MLitt!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was my first time visiting the\nSeven Stories Felling site, and was a perfect way to get me into the Christmas\nspirit. I was greeted by Paula Wride, who showed me the ins and outs of the\narchive before setting me up with my work \u2013 although I\u2019d hardly call it work,\nit was like Christmas came early!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first item I came across was\na hand-painted mother\u2019s day card signed by Allan, which features an image of Mary\nholding Jesus in the same style as the illustrations for Jesus\u2019 Christmas\nParty. <\/em>There\u2019s no way of knowing which came first \u2013 the card or the\nillustrations for the story \u2013 but I\u2019d like to think this is what inspired him.\nI was also surprised to see so many different cover designs for Jesus\u2019\nChristmas Party<\/em> with such vast differences, including the version I have on\nmy shelf at home. Some featured angels, some included the whole nativity and some\neven had the titles in different languages as well! There was even his final\nwatercolour artwork for the figures later produced for the accompanying\nactivity playset and designs for the cover of, what has now become, Jesus\u2019\nChristmas Party: The Musical!<\/em> Here are some of the covers in circulation\nnow, the middle being the most recent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n