LOSS OF AN ARTIST

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 42, 19 February 1942, Page 10

LOSS OF AN ARTIST

AUTHOR OF CHILDREN'S

BOOKS

The death in Sydney last month of Mrs. Dorothy Badgery, better known as Dorothy Wall, means the loss of a well-known artist to the professional world. Mrs. Badgery, who was the daughter of Mrs. L. Wall, 5 Samoa Street, Kilbirnie, was born in Wellington in 1894 and also educated here.

She began her career as a commercial artist in Sydney in 1914, where she did work for the "Sydney Sun," "Smith's Weekly," and the "Woman's Budget." She was also an artist on the staff of the "New Zealand Herald" and the "Weekly News" from 1938 to 1941. She was well known as the

author of children's books which she wrote and illustrated, her "Blinky Bill" series being among her most •popular publications. In 1940 she brought this character up to date in a new issue entitled "Blinky Bill Goes to the War." Two books, particularly well known in New Zealand, which she illustrated were "The Kookaburra" and "The Penguin."

"Bridget and the Bees'" was another oi her books which has been read by many children. , It has been described as a nature study without tears and the illustrations were scientifically correct, the artist leaving nothing to chance and making her drawings from real bees. So great was the success of this book that a large Australian firm made negotiations to obtain the whole of the writer's output. In consequence she was writing and illustrating a book every two months. She read her stories, chapter by chapter, to her small son Peter, and in this manner tested the reading reaction of her young public before writing the final manuscript.