IN AND OUT OF THE EAGLE 9

A significant contributor to both Eagle and Girl was George Cansdale, the zoologist, writer and TV presenter who wrote half page strips about wildlife for seven years for Eagle, which included series called Around the Countryside, British Birds, Prehistoric Animals, Our Pets and Nature Had It First. Impressively ilustrated by Backhouse, Tom Adams and George Bowe, these informative strips promoted readers’ interest in animals and the natural world. But George’s involvement in ‘education without force’was not confined to Eagle and Girl. He wrote several successful Ladybird books, notably The Ladybird Book of Pets and British Wild Animals. From the early 1950s he featured in several wildlife series on television and made regular appearances on Children’s Hour on the radio. After Eagle, he was a frequent guest on Blue Peter on television through the 1960s, 70s and early 80s.    

               

Geoffrey Bond wrote six Luck of the Legion novels in the fifties and sixties and two were translated into French. These were Les Tigres de Chai-Fang (Sergeant Luck Takes Over) in 1968 and La Garnison Fantome (Carry On Sergeant Luck) in 1969. They were published by Alsatia with cover illustrations by Pierre Joubert. Sergeant Luck was created for Eagle and his adventures ran from 1952 to 1961 and occupied the lower part of the centre spread, below the 'Cutaway' drawings. The strip was illustrated by Martin Aitchison.