Racey Helps (1913–1971)

Racey Helps married Irene Orr on 8th April 1936 and his daughter, Anne, was born in July 1937. He used to tell his young daughter a made-up story every night at bed time.
His first success as an author-artist came during World War II with stories written for her; when the war came, the little girl was packed off to a less noisy part of the country, but she still insisted on her story, and so Racey Helps wrote them down for her and drew pictures to illustrate them, and sent them to her.
Racey and Irene ran a hairdressing salon in Shepton Mallet, and on one occasion a publisher happend to drop in and picked up one of these handwritten and illustrated booklets and was enthralled by its content. Having established who was the author of this item, Racey was invited to London to discuss publication of future work with William Collins & Son, with whom he first became associated, then, subsequently, The Medici Society.
At the age of 57 Racey suddenly suffered a fatal heart attack and passed away at his Barnstaple home.
His books have been loved by many generations, and his characters are well known to children on both sides of the Atlantic, right up to the present day.