User:Rakondite/Puffin Club

The Puffin Club was the brainchild of Kaye Webb, the celebrated editor of Puffin Books. Kaye had been inspired by her mother’s attitude to books – encouraging discussion about what they had read and sharing their discoveries – which instilled a firm belief that children develop into adult readers from encouragement in their early childhood.

The club itself was born in 1967 after Kaye had persuaded Sir Allen Lane, the owner of Penguin Books, that the club would ‘make them (children) into (adult) readers’. Members were not to be sold books directly. News of new books and requests to review them and short stories by current Puffin writers would drive the young readers into the bookshops. The back page of new Puffin books carried a page inviting children to join the club, sending their subscription to the Headquarters in Middlesex, and join they did!

In the first year, 16,058 ‘readers’ had joined, and from that point on, Kaye and the rest of the team almost became members of an extended family.

Badges

What is a club without a members’ badge? The Puffin Club had one of the best. A real enamel badge of the familiar Puffin Books logo (designed by Jill McDonald) would arrive with your welcome letter, membership book, a new copy of ‘Puffin Post’ and a set of bookplates when you became a member.

The founder members would eventually receive the ‘Gold Puffin Badge’ – an honour that would only be awarded to later members if they had done something outstanding. For other members, long service of four years would bring you the Black Badge. It required considerable patience for a nine year old

The badge made it possible for young readers to identify each other. After all even then, not every child felt confident enough to admit that books were their thing! Members were always being asked to make suggestions to make the club better. The club code, passwords (‘Sniffup’ To be answered ‘Spotera’ – Puffins are Tops!) and the name ‘Puffineers’ to describe members of the club all came from members.

Every month, Puffin would place 50 coded messages into new books all around the country – such exclusivity! Only members would know how to decode it and win a new book!

Fund raising

Puffineers were regularly called upon to open their piggybanks or do something constructive to help the world, be it raising £3000 to buy a mile of Yorkshire Coastline as a Puffin sanctuary (quite a sum in 1972) or raising funds to buy a specially adapted minibus for physically handicapped children.

New writers

Young writers were born in the pages of Puffin Post. From the first joke (Do you get fur from a skunk? Yes! As fur away as possible!) to the publishing of the Picture Puffin ‘The Pirates Tale’ by Puffineer Janet Aicheson – first published in the pages of ‘Puffin post’ in 1968. Overseas publishers asked for it to be ‘softened’ as they thought it was a bit violent! Obviously publishers’ were a more sensitive breed than the child who had written it! It is interesting to note that today’s Sunday Times Book Reviewer, Nicola Jones, was a member of the Puffin Club – Kaye would have been very proud!

Club Presidents

All members knew in their hearts that Kaye was the ‘Chief Puffineer’, but there were two notable Presidents.

Sir Allen Lane was the first enthusiastic President – without his support and belief in Kaye’s brainchild, the club would never have existed.

So dedicated was Sir Allen that, despite his increasingly poor health, he agreed to host a special Harvest Party in 1971 at his farm in Chapmansford for 200 lucky applicants and their families. He even arranged for a minibus for 50 children without parents. Sadly he died during the planning for the event that became his memorial party.

Sir Allens’ death hit the team hard. It seemed heartless to immediately appoint another president, so it was decided to leave the presidency open until the anniversary of his death as a mark of respect. It still left the question hanging – Who could follow Sir Allen?

Sir Yehudi Menuhin accepted the call in 1972, and became a much loved and respected head of the club, sometimes giving concerts for members and always encouraging everyone to keep healthy in mind and body. The added cultural weight that the club gained from having such an illustrious musician and educator cannot be underestimated. Lord Menuhin, as he became, remained president until the original club ended.

Puffin Club Events

It was always an aim to get young Puffineers together to share their love of reading and to give the opportunity of contact with their favourite authors.

Parties were held on a small scale all over the country with local groups meeting up, all dutifully listed in the back of Puffin Post along with news of new books, new Film and TV dramatisations – and if any of the child performers were members of the club!

1969 saw the first Puffin Exhibition held at the National Union of Teachers’ in London. The thought of being surrounded by teachers didn’t seem to keep the members away that March, and it set a pattern for what was to come. It was thought that visitors would stay for an hour or so – but many stayed the whole day!

For many years the events were held in different venues in London – it was the capital after all – but eventually the Exhibition would go on the road to visit other parts of the UK. The first travelling show landed in Nottinghamshire, but it was to travel to many other venues, allowing members who couldn’t travel the same opportunities as their metropolitan counterparts. The last big events were held at the Commonwealth Institute spreading over many rooms, taking over their cinema, and spilling out onto the lawns.

Members were able to read the Puffin Passports of their favourite authors – and meet them! Quentin Blake was to draw for his young fans, Roald Dahl and Spike Milligan would charm and answer questions. A veritable army of helpers made sure that demonstrations went off without a hitch, autographs were received, shows were safely attended and the shop stocked and serviced.

The events were always a visual feast – this was the ‘70’s remember! – and from the early days, were aided by students from St Martins School of Art. What club could claim that their annual show was designed and decorated by the future top graphic designers and artists of Britain?

Design

The look of the club was unique – due mostly to the involvement of artist and illustrator Jill McDonald.

The puffins that populated the pages of Puffin Post, the membership book and the badge were all Jill’s work. Of all the artists to provided artwork for the covers of Puffin Post, including Raymond Briggs and Quentin Blake, Jill did more than any of them put together.

Jill also created the characters that became enduring friends: Fat Puffin, a portly book loving old bird with a soft spot for doughnuts and a party, always leaping first and then looking.

The more thoughtful Odway the dog was created as a response to the kind of writing that came into the magazine. It was clear to Kaye that teachers were encouraging pupils to send in pieces of school work rather than original thoughtful pieces – Odway would invite these submissions. (If entries for competitions weren’t considered ‘up to scratch’, there wouldn’t be winners, and Kaye would let the members know! – a bit different from competitions today!)

Finally there was TOMCAT the club computer (Totally Obedient Machine Cannot Actually Think) – even though in the early days, the membership was on manually processed file cards!

These ‘members of the team’ answered letters and appeared everywhere, commenting on events, and the work of the many authors that had written specially for the club.

Authors involvement

Kaye used her position as editor of Puffin Books to great effect – her authors would write short stories that would only see print in Puffin Post. Norman Hunter wrote short stories of Professor Branestawm as well as a regular Magic feature. Leon Garfield wrote beguiling two-parters, Quentin Blake drew various cartoons. The list goes on, and author after author wrote about and what inspired them.

If you were a Puffin author, you could expect to appear in the pages of Puffin Post and judge a suitably themed competition.

Members writing for the club leaked out into the pages of published books, be it the ‘Crack-a-joke Book’ or ‘I Like this Poem’ (a personal project of Kaye’s). Readers had become writers, and if you were a member you knew you could be a writer.

The End?

The Puffin Club didn’t so much end as fade away. There were efforts to be more targeted by the creation of the Junior Puffin Club with it’s own young Puffin, Smudge who appeared in the pages of the new magazine ‘The Egg’

With the untimely death of Jill McDonald in 1982 part of the soul of the club died too. How would Fat Puffin, Odway and TOMCAT respond to a changing world without Jill behind them?

Kaye had retired as editor of Puffin Books in 1979, but stayed as part of the Puffin Post team and head of the Puffin Club. Kaye wanted to find a new artist or writer to fill the gap left by Jill – perhaps a new character more suited to the times. It was not to be.

Puffin Post changed its format in 1984 as a new magazine, trying to fit into a very different world, with a different form of market forces and politics making the old club seem less vital. Authors still wrote, as did the members, but the content lacked the style of the past and lost its fire. The last Puffin Post was printed in 1989.

The last part of the club to survive to this day was the schools Puffin Book Club that enabled children to buy books through their school and enable schools to add to their library.

The members of the 70’s and early 80’s are now parents with a love of books that is now being encouraged to a new generation of younger readers, and it is now fitting that the club should come back, acknowledging the best of the past and embracing the new.

The new incarnation of the club exists as 'Puffin Post' an imprint of the Book People.