Peg Maltby

Born Agnes Newberry Orchard in Leicestershire, England on 17 January 1899, she married George Bradley Maltby in 1917. They moved to Australia in 1924.{{Cite web |last= |title=Peg Maltby |url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/A46741 |access-date=2022-08-17 |website=AustLit: Discover Australian Stories |language=en}}

Maltby held several exhibitions of her artwork, including at Newman's Gallery in Melbourne in 1934,{{cite news |date=3 December 1934 |title=In Today's Social News |page=15 |newspaper=The Herald |issue=17,957 |location=Victoria, Australia |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article243081506 |accessdate=18 August 2022 |via=National Library of Australia}} where it was reported that her pen and colour drawings were in the style of Arthur Rackham{{cite news |date=4 December 1934 |title=Art Notes |page=7 |newspaper=The Age |issue=24,849 |location=Victoria, Australia |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article205085176 |accessdate=18 August 2022 |via=National Library of Australia}} and The Bulletin's art critic wrote that she "has the needful imagination to work out dainty scenes as acceptable to adults as to children and swing back the mature cynic to his infantile faith in fairies".{{Citation |title=Current Artbursts |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-631355464/view?sectionId=nla.obj-635678191&searchTerm=Peg+Maltby&partId=nla.obj-631363045#page/n36/mode/1up/search/Peg+Maltby |journal=The Bulletin |volume=55 |issue=2863 |pages=37 |publication-date=1934-12-26 |publisher=John Haynes and J.F. Archibald |issn=0007-4039 |access-date=2022-08-18}}

In 1937, while visiting her parents in England, she created illustrations of "gum leaves and quaint folklore scenes" for a London company, who were interested in her work.{{cite news |date=15 May 1937 |title=What Women Are Doing |volume=IV |page=41 |newspaper=The Australian Women's Weekly |issue=50 |location=Australia, Australia |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article52254999 |accessdate=20 August 2022 |via=National Library of Australia}}

Her first books, Peg's Fairy Book and Introducing Pip and Pepita and Pepita's Baby were published in 1944. She began a series of books featuring a pair of pixies named Ben and Bella in 1947, some of which were republished by Angus and Robertson in 1982 as The adventures of Ben & Bella.

In the 1950s Maltby's book sales were impacted by imported publications, so she and her husband opened Santa's Workshop and a Fairyland Emporium in her studio at Olinda, Victoria. Over 6,000 children and adults had visited the displays of paintings and dioramas by December 1954.{{Citation |title=Santa's Workshop |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/233286892 |journal=The Australian Woman's Mirror |volume=31 |issue=3 |publication-date=1954-12-15 |publisher=The Bulletin Newspaper |access-date=22 August 2022}}

Angus & Robertson published a new edition of Peg's Fairy Book in 1976{{Citation |author1=Maltby |first=Peg |title=Peg's fairy book |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/7951319 |publication-date=1976 |publisher=Angus & Robertson |access-date=22 August 2022}} and The Australian Women's Weekly announced that Maltby's "pixies are making a comeback – and publishing history – as a new generation of children are being enchanted by them."{{cite news |date=20 October 1976 |title=Next Week |volume=44 |page=176 |newspaper=The Australian Women's Weekly |issue=20 |location=Australia, Australia |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55480061 |accessdate=22 August 2022 |via=National Library of Australia}} Additional interest in her work was generated when Myer Melbourne held an exhibition of her work in November and Peg's Fairy Book was used for Myer's Christmas displays throughout their Australian stores that year.{{cite news |date=27 October 1976 |title=Pixies are here to stay |volume=44 |page=34 |newspaper=The Australian Women's Weekly |issue=21 |location=Australia, Australia |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55480096 |accessdate=22 August 2022 |via=National Library of Australia}} The Australian Women's Weekly also held a colouring competition, using her work as its theme and offering two trips to Disneyland to the age-group winners and signed copies of the book as other prizes.{{cite news |date=24 November 1976 |title=Win a trip to Disneyland! |volume=44 |page=188 |newspaper=The Australian Women's Weekly |issue=25 |location=Australia, Australia |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55470117 |accessdate=22 August 2022 |via=National Library of Australia}}

The Australian National Botanic Gardens in Canberra held an exhibition, "Snugglepot and Cuddlepie and Other Folk of the Australian Bush", which displayed Maltby's work alongside that of May Gibbs.{{cite news |last=Rintoul |first=Susan |date=23 September 1987 |title=Bush babies in garden display |volume=62 |page=24 |newspaper=The Canberra Times |issue=18,982 |location=Australian Capital Territory, Australia |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article122123909 |accessdate=22 August 2022 |via=National Library of Australia}}

• Introducing Pip and Pepita, 1944
• Peg's Fairy Book, 1944
• Nutchen of the Forest, 1945
• Meet Mr. Cobbledick!, 1948
• The Little World of Peg Maltby, 1982
• Adventures of Ben and Bella, 1982

• Speak well books, by Ellie P. Colclough, 2 vols, 1944
• Australian honeyeaters, by Hugh R. Officer, Alex Stirling (map), 1964

{{Reflist}}

• [https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/14866533 Introducing Pip and Pepita] – digitised via Trove
• [https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/7951319 Peg's Fairy Book] – digitised via Trove

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Category:1899 births

Category:1984 deaths

Category:Australian illustrators

Category:Australian children's writers

Category:People from Leicestershire

Category:Artists from Melbourne

Category:Writers from Melbourne

Category:English emigrants to Australia

Category:People from Yarra Ranges