TheRyusui
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Attention: All UK Members.
There is a mystery that needs to be solved, and you could help.
In this topic, we've discussed the existence of a trilogy of Sylvanian Families books published in Japan that purport to have been written in 1970 by a Roger Winstone. The publisher that the books were licensed from still exists, and they are based in the United Kingdom: however, we can find no evidence as yet as to the identity of Roger Winstone or whether an English-language version of these books was indeed published.
Maybe a friend of a friend knew a Roger Winstone who wrote childrens' books. Maybe you or someone you know happened to read one of them...or luckier still, own one of them. Any and all information is welcome and appreciated. And even if you happen to live in the United States and know something about the mysterious Roger Winstone and his Tales of the Sylvanian Families, your input is also very much desired.
Thank you for your cooperation. With any luck, we might see this mystery solved.
--- In all your journeys, have you seen the land beyond the mountains green?
俺を誰だと思ってやがる？ |
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2/17/2008, 2:41 pm
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Bluebell Oakwood
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Re: Attention: All UK Members.
Hmmm... my old friend Google is not being very helpful on this subject!
Do you know the name of the publisher? I was thinking maybe I could call them and get them to check their archives...
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3/14/2008, 1:22 pm
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TheRyusui
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Re: Attention: All UK Members.
The publisher is William Heinemann Books Press Inc., London.
Thank you for any help you can offer.
Last edited by TheRyusui, 3/14/2008, 7:14 pm
--- In all your journeys, have you seen the land beyond the mountains green?
俺を誰だと思ってやがる？ |
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3/14/2008, 7:12 pm
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Benjaminkje
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Re: Attention: All UK Members.
Hey folks,
I'm sorry to butt in again like this (lol), but I noticed this and the other thread about Roger Winstone and the books. I feel that I may be at least vaguely in a position to help here.
As was mentioned on the other thread, there is a record of someone called Roger Winstone being born in 1920 in Ashbourne — a small town with a population of just over 7,000 in Derbyshire, but right next to the Staffordshire border. By bizarre coincidence, I actually sort of used to live there, and my parents still do to an extent.
Since I now live in Scotland, it is unfortunately no-longer practical for me to undertake an extensive investigation in the near future. But I could quite easily ask my parents to go and look for any records on him, which might suggest whether he is likely to have written children's books. Equally, if I go there for an extended period of time (i.e. a week) again, then I'd be quite happy to ask around.
But until then, I think I'm going to view this Roger Winstone — whoever he is — as the mythical originator of Sylvanians!
One other thing I'll throw in though is that it is not uncommon for authors from smaller English-speaking countries (e.g. Ireland, New Zealand etc.) to use UK publishing companies in effort to attract a wider audience — just something else to consider when looking for records of names of authors we know nothing about.
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4/11/2008, 7:47 am
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koolkaci86
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Re: Attention: All UK Members.
Hey Benjamin
I'm going to go and investigate over the summer as I live about 25 minutes from there
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4/11/2008, 8:40 am
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TheRyusui
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Re: Attention: All UK Members.
Thanks for any and all help you can offer. Things just aren't supposed to disappear, not in this day and age...they're supposed to settle down on a quiet little page until some intrepid web spelunker digs them up and restores them to the public eye.
The Internet may not be a magic database, but darn it, it's got everything else...
--- In all your journeys, have you seen the land beyond the mountains green?
俺を誰だと思ってやがる？ |
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4/11/2008, 9:34 am
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Benjaminkje
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Re: Attention: All UK Members.
That's great. I'll make sure I mention it to my parents the next time I see them — if this Roger Winstone still lives in Ashbourne, chances are that they'll at least know someone who knows of him.
Incidentally...
I've also found a Roger Winstone in some way connected to a place called Great Bentley in Essex. He seems to have participated in some race in 2001:
http://www.ukresults.net/2001/bentley10.html
And also a Roger Winstone Miles on the Financial Services Authority database who appears to own some kind of motoring firm based in Bristol.
Roger Winston, without an E, returns a large number of hits on Google, but nothing stands out as having anything to do with children's stories, unfortunately, as you folks have probably already discovered.
I have to say though that I find it very surprising that there doesn't appear to be any record on the internet of these children's books published in the UK in the 1970s that somehow managed to attract the attention of folks in Japan. Has anyone tried contacting Epoch, Flair or even Tomy about it?
Last edited by Benjaminkje, 4/11/2008, 9:56 am
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4/11/2008, 9:51 am
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koolkaci86
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Re: Attention: All UK Members.
Thats why I was wondering if they were a bit before our time so to speak, maybe early 20th Century and maybe only locally published so wouldn't be widely available and I'd hazard a guess that if the link, or a definite link was made between the books, the author would have some sort of royalties from every Sylvanian product ever sold.
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4/12/2008, 1:28 pm
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Puppizlover
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Re: Attention: All UK Members.
Sorry,
I looked the extent I could on google, but I'm afraid Neither Him, The Books, or the Publishing Company draws up any info. I wish you luck.
---
Sincerely,
~Selena~
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5/14/2008, 11:10 am
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TheRyusui
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Re: Attention: All UK Members.
...It's entirely possible he and the "original English-language books" don't exist.
The TVTropes.org entry on Choose Your Own Adventure books has an entry near the bottom, where a French publisher marketed a series of gamebooks claiming to have been translated from English. They weren't.
Funnily enough, the entry just below is also relevant: one bit of material that Weaver posted for Ruby Quest was a poem titled "The Metal Glen" that was purportedly written by a William Murdoch, both the name of an 18th-century engineer and a 19th-century poet, which rather closely echoes the first part of the story. Once the nightmarish undersea hospital the characters were in was revealed to be called "The Metal Glen", however, Weaver revealed that he was the author of the poem. (Still a freakin' awesome poem, though.)
So. Do Roger Winston(e), the author, and his purported Sylvanian Families books exist? The answer to that question seems much less clear since the start of this investigation. I sincerely hope the answer is "yes", since the Western world of Sylvanian Families is sorely lacking in story (apologies if you're reading this, lostmymarblz; I've just gotten sidetracked translating those story booklets), but if the answer is "no"...perhaps that's where I should come in yet again.
Last edited by TheRyusui, 2/24/2009, 10:19 am
--- In all your journeys, have you seen the land beyond the mountains green?
俺を誰だと思ってやがる？ |
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2/24/2009, 10:17 am
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