Hilda Boswell (1903-1976)

Hilda Boswell was born in Hackney, London, on 8 October 1903, daughter of an architect, and studied Hornsey Art School and Regent Street Polytechnic before becoming an illustrator. She drew adventure strips for British comic papers published by the Amalgamated Press, including "Call o' the West" in Butterfly and "Starr of the Silver Screen" in Sparkler, both in 1937. Her longest-running series was "Strongheart", based on a canine hero from silent films, which she took over from G. William Backhouse and drew in Crackers from 1939 to 1944, and thereafter in Jingles. She contributed to a Robin annual in 1958 and a Swift annual in 1960. She also wrote and illustrated children's books, preferring to work in watercolour, from the 1940s to the 1960s, and is well known for her dust jackets for Enid Blyton novels. She died on 30 October 1976 in Haringey, London.

References

• Alan Clark, Dictionary of British Comic Artists, Writers and Editors, The British Library, 1998, p. 22-23
• Alan Horne, The Dictionary of 20th Century Book Illutsrators, Antique Collectors' Club, 1994, p. 111
• Steve Holland, Hilda Boswell, Bear Alley, 19 November 2006
• Blighton illustrators A-C, Heather's Blyton Pages

Online Reference

• Hilda Boswell on Wikipedia