{"id":18791,"date":"2026-10-05T06:50:29","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T05:50:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tikit.net\/panfans\/?p=18791"},"modified":"2026-10-05T06:53:01","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T05:53:01","slug":"rene-brantonne-a-fratini-bookmark-and-margaret-powell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tikit.net\/panfans\/2026\/10\/05\/rene-brantonne-a-fratini-bookmark-and-margaret-powell\/","title":{"rendered":"Rene Brantonne, A Fratini Bookmark and Margaret Powell."},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ren\u00e9 Louis Brantonne (3\/1\/1903 to 6\/10\/1979) was a prolific French illustrator and graphic designer who died this week 47 years ago at the age of 77. His defining legacy is his vibrant, otherworldly cover art for the legendary ‘ANTICIPATION<\/span>‘<\/a><\/span><\/strong> science fiction paperback series. Betweeno 1951 and 1977 Brantonne illustrated hundreds of covers and fundamentally shaping the visual identity of mid-century French science fiction. I’ve included him because as I’ve mentioned before publisher\u00a0Fleuve Noir <\/span><\/span>recycled PAN covers<\/span><\/strong><\/a> and I think they are my second favourite after PANs of course. Brantonne was one of several well known French artists such as Jean-Michel Nicollete and Mandy (Philippe Mandilas) who painted s\/f covers. To find out more about ‘ANTICIPATION’<\/span><\/strong> and Brantonne HERE<\/span><\/strong><\/a> is some suggested further reading. I’ve still got a couple of hundred more covers to scan, it’s a work in progress.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

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I was pleasantly surprised to get an unexpected letter from Australia recently. In it was a bookmark to go with ‘The Art of Renato Fratini’<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/a> which was apparently for original supporters which I had forgotten all about. I’ve now tucked it into my copy of the book for safe keeping.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

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Margaret Powell (October 1907 to April 1984) whose best-selling books about her experiences in domestic service inspired the TV series ‘Upstairs, Downstairs’<\/span><\/strong> and ‘Downton Abbey’<\/span><\/strong> was born in Hove. One of seven children of a house painter and charwoman, the family lived with her grandmother in three rooms. Her parents could not afford to let her take up the grammar school scholarship she won and instead, at the age of 13, she became a laundress and later a kitchen maid. After marriage and motherhood, noting that she had nothing to talk about with her eldest son who was preparing to go to university, she took evening classes, passing her O-levels at the age of 58. Her memoir, ‘Below Stairs’ <\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/a>was<\/span><\/span> published in 1968, and was an immediate success. Further books followed and Margaret became a popular guest on television talk shows. A blue plaque marks her birthplace and her name is on a bus in Brighton.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

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I have to say, if there was a prize for the most unaspiring series of book covers, then these could well be in the running but then again that could just be me?<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ren\u00e9 Louis Brantonne (3\/1\/1903 to 6\/10\/1979) was a prolific French illustrator and graphic designer who died this week 47 years ago at the age of 77. His defining legacy is his vibrant, otherworldly cover art for the legendary ‘ANTICIPATION‘ science fiction paperback series. Betweeno 1951 and 1977 Brantonne illustrated hundreds of covers and fundamentally shaping […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tikit.net\/panfans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18791"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tikit.net\/panfans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tikit.net\/panfans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tikit.net\/panfans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tikit.net\/panfans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tikit.net\/panfans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18791\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tikit.net\/panfans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tikit.net\/panfans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tikit.net\/panfans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}