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The Herbs and The Adventures of Parsley Classic BBC kid's animation by Michael Bond
PARSLEY'S TAIL PARSLEY'S GOOD DEED
A pair of books,published by the BBC in 1969.
Possibly the forerunners of more,but scuppered by poor sales ? But that's only a guess.
Written by Michael Bond,and illustrated by a man called Esor,who also worked on the annuals.
All the artwork is in colour but there are no stills from the series.
Both stories are a simple re-telling of the first 2 Herbs episodes transmitted
ie."Parsley's Tail" and "Sage's Nest Blows Down"
And for the uninitiated,Parsley's "Good Deed" is to levitate the nest back up into the tree using Pashana Bedhi's "magic snake charming pipe" -hence the slightly bizarre-looking cover.
Both books are about 9" x 7" and run to about 26 pages.
PARSLEY'S LAST STAND and PARSLEY'S PROBLEM PRESENT
Again a set of just 2 books and once again published by the BBC,only this time in 1970.
Still written by Michael Bond,but unlike the other 2 we get colour photos lifted from the series rather than illustrations -as per the cover shots.And they re-tell 2 episodes from The Adventures of Parsley - "Cowboys and Indians" and "Sage's Birthday" (the latter being the classic one where Parsley and Dill decide to give him a knitted balaclava -as you would.)
They're both about 7.5" x 8" and run to approximately 16 pages.
Generally speaking,kids would probably have preferred the annuals to these.But of all the books produced,they're the only ones to feature any series photos and for that reason alone they're the pick of the bunch -at least,from an adult's perspective.
SNIPPETS
Parsley's Last Stand
" Indians ! he howled.
I think I'd better bury my bones while the going's good !
And he disappeared behind his kennel so fast he almost left his tail behind "
Parsley's Problem Present
" Isn't it amazing, he exclaimed, turning to Dill in disgust.
That's the trouble with owls-
they're either awake & grumbling all the time or they don't give a
hoot because they're asleep "
THE ADVENTURES OF PARSLEY ( right )
A collection of 7 short stories published by Dean and Son in 1972.
Neither the writing nor the illustrations are credited,and the stories don't seem to mirror any from the tv series.
THE HERBS BOARD BOOK ( left )
The pic was taken from an old ebay listing,that was sadly less than informative.But,with the help of Tony Clark,I've managed to establish it was published in 1968 by World Distributors (Manchester) Limited and is about 7.5" x 7"
It's a simple story book with colour photos that were specially staged using the original models and sets.
But perhaps the most striking thing about it is that all the pages are made out of thick,stiff card.
Although quite why they bothered is anyone's guess.
Known predominantly for their pop-ups,this is pretty representative of the raft of other tv tie-ins that Dean were churning out at the time.And they often used freelance as well as in-house artists and writers,which is presumably what happened with this one.
Nice and colourful,but nothing special.It measures about 8.5" x 9.5" and runs to approximately 20 pages.
