EXTRACTS: Illustrators Issue 6 © 2013 The Book Palace (96 PAGES in Full edition)

6 were being published in the leading British women’s magazines at the time. Woman magazine, published by Odhams Press in London, was the world’s best-selling weekly magazine for women, selling an impressive three and a half million copies every week, and its editor Mary Grieve, and art editor George (Tiny) Watts, gave Wyles considerable encouragement, giving him his first commission, and later becoming one of his biggest clients. Watts encouraged Wyles to push the boundaries, and work in different styles for different assignments, ranging from highly detailed oil paintings and watercolours for Elizabethan, Georgian and Victorian serials, to flamboyant and painterly illustrations to depict contemporary themes. He finally settled on painting mainly women’s heads for book covers, and highly complex oil and watercolour paintings for magazine period serials and book jackets. Wyles met his future wife Margaret, a dark- eyed Celtic beauty, who was a student at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and after a brief courtship, they married in 1954, when Margaret gave up her studies and became, what was known at the time, a full-time housewife. They started married life living in London’s west end, and after the birth of their sons Nicholas and Glyn, they moved out to Putney, in south west London. By the late 1950s, Wyles’ career had taken off, and he had become one of the leading illustrators working in Britain. The obligatory fast cars, and a twelve-metre yacht followed, and they moved to a larger house near Wimbledon Common, in south west London. Women’s magazines at the beginning of the sixties had a voracious appetite for illustrated romantic fiction. The leading weekly magazines usually published one serial and three short stories every week; all of them lavishly illustrated. Woman magazine led the way, closely followed by Woman’s Own, Woman’s Mirror, Woman’s Realm and Woman’s Weekly, using at least twenty illustrations a week between them. There were also monthly women’s magazines publishing romantic fiction led by Woman’s Journal, Woman and Home, and Homes and Gardens, accounting for at least another nine illustrations a month. In addition there were magazines such as Honey and Petticoat catering for a younger readership, and they also published well- illustrated romantic fiction. The period also saw the birth of weekly magazines such as The Sunday Times Magazine and The Telegraph Magazine, or colour RIGHT AND FACING PAGE: Having been initially influenced by the work of Arthur Rackham and Norman Rockwell, Wyles’ work rapidly shook any of their influence, and he proceeded to create his own unique visual identity. Text continued on page 16