My Recollections of John Grant.

I was sorry to hear of the death of John Grant the other day, the news came via a phone call from The Drum, Riding for the Disabled. I find it sad that he is not remembered by many children of the eighties, or by their parents.

John was an Edinburgh architect who wrote and illustrated the "Littlenose" stories for his children, they were seized upon by the BBC and broadcast on the children's programme, "Jackanory." It seems to have taken some creative time management for him to be able to travel to London to narrate his tales. For a decade he was famous.

Littlenose was a Neanderthal boy, an ice-age version of Richmal Crompton's “Just William.” Living in the ice-age, all the members of his tribe had perpetual colds which resulted in them all having swollen noses - only Littlenose escaped this affliction. In the next valley, there lived a tribe who also avoided the swollen nose syndrome, amongst their number was Littlenose's "uncle," a joke that was missed by the juvenile audience.

About twenty five years ago, John visited our village library, I took Jnr along to meet him; I was the only adult to stay and enjoy "Littlenose the Horseman," the story told by its author, at great length, as he drew the illustrations. The blip is Panel six from this tale.
During the TV programme, the camera would have zoomed into the relevant areas of the picture as dictated by the narrative.

Some six or seven years ago, John found the original paintings (created for, and used in, the television series), and sent them for auction - the proceeds to go to The Drum, Mrs TD went along and put in a bid for the first set at the reserve price, there were no other bids. When we went to collect it, she asked what had happened to the others only to be told that they had not sold. She bought the rest of them. John subsequently sent us the annotated Jackanory scripts.

Herself sold one set to a friend who had some of the pictures framed for her grown up children, we have never decided what to do with the other four sets of ten pictures.

I occasionally met John at Drum events and once introduced myself, he was a nice and generous man who supported The Drum in many ways.