Elfie and Joe Series: Book 1
by Joan Lingard
Cover illustration by Sarah Lodge
Ma and Pa Bigsby, of the Pig and Whistle, Stoke Newington already look after ten children. So when an eleventh orphan turns up on the doorstep, they are reluctant to take her in…
But Elfie brings with her a mystery and the only clues are kept in her bag of treasures. Elfie sets out to solve the puzzle of her past. The answers lie in the foggy streets of Victorian London, where other more dangerous things are lurking…
Joan based Ma and Pa Bigsby on her own grandparents, who ran a pub in Stoke Newington, London in the early 2oth century. I managed to track down the original pub and sketch it and I loosely based the pub on the front cover on the ’real’ Pig and Whistle.
ISBN 9781846470523
Published by Catnip Books, 2016
Elfie and Joe Series: Book 2
by Joan Lingard
Cover illustration by Sarah Lodge
1901. When Elfie’s best friend Joe starts work as a clerk in her father’s office, Elfie is delighted. But there’s a new partner in the firm who seems to have a hold over Mr. Trelawney, and takes an instant dislike to Joe.
Elfie and Joe are sure there’s more to this man than meets the eye and they are determined to find out what.
Their investigations soon uncover a conspiracy that stretches from one end of the country to the other.
ISBN 9781846471087
Published by Catnip Books, 2018
Elfie and Joe Series: Book 3
by Joan Lingard
Cover illustration by Sarah Lodge
When Elfie’s little sister Rosalind is stolen from outside her school, her parents will do anything to get her back. But Rosalind’s safe return comes at great cost …
As Elfie and Joe untangle the kidnapper’s plot, it leads them closer to a devious mastermind who will stop at nothing. Not even murder. It’s a race against time to locate the villain before Elfie’s family falls apart under the strain.
I wanted to show the contrast between Elfie’s two worlds with this wraparound cover, featuring working class Mile End Road on the front, and leafy, genteel Hampstead on the back. The maid in a brown spotted dress is ‘Frizzie Lizzie’. In retrospect I made her slightly too glamorous for a house maid, but I did enjoy rendering the spots on her dress.
ISBN 9781846471292
Published by Catnip Books, 2018