Norman Hunter (author)

Norman Hunter
Born	23 November 1899 Sydenham, England
Died	23 February 1995 (aged 95) Staines
Occupation	children's writer
Known for	Professor Branestawm
Spouse(s)	Sylvia Rangel (married 1923)

Norman George Lorimer Hunter (23 November 1899 – 23 February 1995^[1]) was a British children's author, creator of Professor Branestawm.

Early life

Hunter was born in Sydenham, England, on 23 November 1899. He attended Beckenham County School for Boys (later known as Beckenham and Penge Grammar School and then Langley Park School for Boys). He left school to volunteer for service during World War I in the London Irish Rifles.^[2]

Career

Hunter wrote popular books on writing for advertising, brain-teasers and conjuring among many others. His career started as an advertising copywriter and in the 1930s he was performing as a stage magician in Bournemouth.

It was at this time he started to write the Professor Branestawm series, originally intended for radio. The first book, The Incredible Adventures of Professor Branestawm, was published in hardback in 1933 with illustrations by W. Heath Robinson, the second, Professor Branestawm's Treasure Hunt in 1937 with drawings by James Arnold. George Adamson illustrated the reissue of Professor Branestawm's Treasure Hunt in 1966, and when Norman Hunter brought out his third book in the series in 1970 after a gap of more than thirty years, Adamson provided the illustrations. Two further Professor Branestawm titles were then published with Adamson's drawings. Other artists were to provide illustrations for later books in the series: Gerald Rose; David Hughes; Jill McDonald, and Derek Cousins. Many of the books were reissued in Puffin Books, the Penguin children's imprint, the first of these, The Incredible Adventures of Professor Branestawm, under Eleanor Graham's editorship in 1946 and many others under Kaye Webb's in the 1960s and 1970s.

Hunter returned to London during the Second World War, living on a boat on the Thames. Post-war, in 1949 he went to work in South Africa and the fiction writing ceased. On his retirement in 1970, he once again returned to London, where Thames Television had just produced the Professor Branestawm eight-part TV series. He continued writing in his retirement, with his last book published in 1983.

Works

(Incomplete):

• Simplified Conjuring for All: a collection of new tricks needing no special skill or apparatus for their performance with suitable patter, C. Arthur Pearson (1923)
• Advertising Through the Press: a guide to press publicity, Sir I. Pitman & Sons (1925)
• New and Easy Magic : a further series of novel magical experiments needing no special skill or apparatus for their performance with suitable patter, C. Arthur Pearson (1925)
• The Bad Barons of Crashbania: Vol. 42, Continuous Stories, Jolly Books (Blackwell, 1932), illustrated by Eve Garnett
• The Incredible Adventures of Professor Branestawm, John Lane (1933), illustrated by W. Heath Robinson
• New Conjuring without Skill, Bodley Head (1935)
• Professor Branestawm's Treasure Hunt, John Lane (1937), illustrated by James Arnold; Bodley Head (1966), illustrated by George Adamson
• Larky Legends (1938), republished as The Dribblesome Teapots and Other Incredible Stories (1973)
• Successful Conjuring for Amateurs, Pearson (c.1951)
• The Puffin Book of Magic (1968), republished as Norman Hunter’s Book of Magic, Bodley Head (1974)
• The Peculiar Triumph of Professor Branestawm, Bodley Head (1970), illustrated by George Adamson
• The Dribblesome Teapots and Other Incredible Stories (1971), illustrated by Fritz Wegner
• Professor Branestawm Up the Pole, Bodley Head (1972), illustrated by George Adamson
• Professor Branestawm's Dictionary, Bodley Head (1973), with cover by George Adamson
• The Frantic Phantom and Other Incredible Stories (1973), illustrated by Geraldine Spence
• Wizards Are A Nuisance, BBC (1973)
• Professor Branestawm's Great Revolution, Bodley Head (1974), illustrated by David Hughes; Puffin (1977), illustrated by George Adamson
• The Home-made Dragon and Other Incredible Stories (1974), illustrated by Fritz Wegner
• Dust up at the Royal Disco: and Other Stories (1975), illustrated by Fritz Wegner
• Long Live Their Majesties (1975)
• Professor Branestawm’s Compendium of Donundrums, Riddles, Puzzles, Brain Twiddlers and Dotty Descriptions, Bodley Head (1975)
• Professor Branestawm’s Do-It-Yourself Handbook, Bodley Head (1976); Puffin (1979), illustrated by Jill McDonald
• Professor Branestawm Round the Bend, Bodley Head (1977), illustrated by Derek Cousins
• Vanishing Ladies, and Other Magic, Bodley Head (1978), illustrated by Jill McDonald
• Professor Branestawm's Perilous Pudding, Bodley Head (1979), illustrated by Derek Cousins
• The Best of Branestawm, Bodley Head (1980), with illustrations by George Adamson, Derek Cousins, W. Heath Robinson and Jill McDonald
• Sneeze and Be Slain and Other Incredible Stories (1980)
• Professor Branestawm and the Wild Letters, Bodley Head (1981), illustrated by Gerald Rose
• Professor Branestawm's Pocket Motor Car, Bodley Head (1981), illustrated by Gerald Rose
• Professor Branestawm's Mouse War, Bodley Head (1982), illustrated by Gerald Rose
• Professor Branestawm's Building Bust-Up, Bodley Head (1982), illustrated by Gerald Rose
• Count Bakwerdz on the Carpet and Other Incredible Stories (1982), illustrated by Babette Cole
• Professor Branestawm's Crunchy Crockery, Bodley Head (1983), illustrated by Gerald Rose
• Professor Branestawm's Hair-Raising Idea, Bodley Head (1983), illustrated by Gerald Rose

References

1. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-norman-hunter-1575207.html; Obituary in the Independent, no.n2609, 1995 Feb 28, p12(1) (ISSN 0951-9467)
2. Norman Hunter at BBC. Retrieved 26 November 2014

External links

• BBC-H2G2
• Books at Random
• Norman Hunter at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database