A NEW tourist attraction featuring the work of author Enid Blyton’s celebrated illustrator Eileen Soper is opening on Poole Quay.
The Eileen Soper Illustrated World will be situated alongside the Enid Blyton-themed Ginger Pop Shop, which opened on Friday at the site of the historic Swan Inn.
The shop, brainchild of Viv Endecott, promises to be “jam-packed with Enid Blyton books, lots of ginger beer, music and memorabilia from the 1940s”.
Viv, who also runs the famous Enid Blytong Ginger Pop Shop at Corfe Castle, said: “The centre will bring the illustrations of Eileen Soper to life.
“And she didn’t just do Enid Blyton, she also illustrated Alice in Wonderland and Robert Louis Stevenson.”
However, Soper is best known for her work on 150 of children’s author Bylton’s books, including the Famous Five series.
Viv said: “This is all art work the baby boom generation will know.
“We will have a real Famous Five-style mystery to solve, with clues in our secret passage.
“We’ve got a Cheshire Cat mirror maze, which as you walk through the cat appears and disappears.
“There are lots of places to eat and drink along the quay, but not much to visit in between.”
The centre will boast a wealth of local history, sound spots – where the poems of Robert Louis Stevenson can be heard – and extracts from the Dorset Women’s Institute war book, which paint a picture of life during Blyton and Soper’s heyday.
Viv is on the lookout for anyone with a tuneable piano they could donate.
She said: “One of the people I have taken on is an extremely good pianist, but we need a piano so we can play 1940s-style music as part of the exhibition.”
The Eileen Soper Illustrated World on Poole Quay is due to open by the end of next week, August 14.
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