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Myers Literary Guide:
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The North-East
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DIANA ROSS (1910 - 2000) Diana Ross's mother was a cousin of Sir Wilfrid Grenfell, the celebrated Labrador missionary and writer of God's Frozen People. She herself was a prolific writer and often illustrated her own works under the pseudonym 'GRI' - one of her cats. Her rather disturbing book Uncle Anty's Album (1941) shows a photomontage series of dolls (taken by her husband) set at weird angles and oddly lit. Diana supplied the gossipy text. Her story-book The Golden Hen followed in 1942. The delightful illustrations are accompanied by just the sort of repetitious text that children enjoy. Nursery Tales came out in 1944. She was in fact a pioneer of 'nursery realism' , with ordinary children doing ordinary things. Her most famous stories (nine in all) are about The Little Red Engine which started four years before W. V. Awdry's Thomas - and some would say excelled him. Diana's engine, typically, was no toy but a working engine anchored in post-war British reconstruction. Diana Ross was also a pioneer in children's radio and television and worked on Playschool and Candlewick Green. Her stories were also ideal for Listen with Mother. Diana spent the last ten years of her life living with her daughter in Gosforth, still a cheerful presence and a great whistler, like The Little Red Engine.
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