Good day to all our loyal newsletter readers. We hope this missive finds you cosy, warm and busy with lots of things that could use the services of an excellent and long-established purveyor of historical and film pictures (ahem, that's us in case you were wondering).

It's our first News of Note of 2023, and we've brought together a smorgasbord of subjects from poetry readings and a coronation round-up to royal rivalries, aerial advertising and a 20th century designer with impeccable style. Read on for a January digest of news snippets to interest and inspire.

Royal Rivals

The dust is only just settling on the revelations of the past few weeks, following the publication of Prince Harry's book, 'Spare'. Whatever side of the fence you choose over this particular royal squabble, it's thrown into focus the less than harmonious relationship Harry has sometimes had with his elder brother. But a quick sweep through history reveals that brotherly feuds and sibling rivalry in royal families is nothing new, and by Plantagenet or Tudor standards, Will and Harry's tiff is remarkably mild.

Consider, for instance, the uneasy relationship between Henry VIII's three children divided over suspicion and religious dogma (Elizabeth I narrowly avoided being executed by her elder sister). Or there is the poor Duke of Clarence, who was privately executed on the orders of Edward IV, apparently drowned in a vat of malmsey wine. James II's daughters both turned against him although Mary and Anne later had a falling out themselves.

There are of course the infamous father-son conflicts among the Hanoverians; George I and George II hated each other, and the pattern was repeated with George II and Frederick, Prince of Wales. More recently, relations between George VI and the Duke of Windsor were permanently damaged following the Abdication.

We've gathered these blue-blooded (and frequently bloody) feuds together in this selection. Look out for a number of photos of the current royal siblings in happier times including on the polo field, courtesy of photographer, Michael Chevis.

Ernst Dryden

We were pleased to welcome a long-standing contributor to the library this month - Anthony Lippman.

Anthony is the custodian of the archive of Austrian designer and commercial artist, Ernst Dryden (1887-1938) as well as author of 'Divinely Elegant' about Dryden's life and work. Dryden's chic, androgynous figures graced high-end fashion magazines such as Die Dame during the 1920s and '30s, and he was called upon to add his sophisticated mark to a range of luxury brands from Cinzano to Bugatti.

His work will appeal to anyone with an interest in illustration, design, fashion and style but Anthony's own story about how he came to acquire the collection is equally fascinating and we're delighted he offered to write a blog post about it.

We highly recommend giving it a read.

A Coronation Reminder

A few months ago we sent out a bumper newsletter setting out our stall for all things coronation. With plans for the new King's coronation on 6th May now well underway, we thought it would be useful to remind you that we are one of the very best specialist sources for this subject, with ephemera, objects and illustration supplementing photographs, engravings and paintings of past coronations in 1953, 1937, 1911, 1902 and even further back through the centuries.

If you'd like to be reminded of our coronation credentials, you can read about them here.

Dates for your Diary

January is just the time to make plans and look ahead and on that subject, the anniversaries page on our website is looking particularly interesting for the coming months.

30th January marks the 75th anniversary of the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, while the 12th February is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Italian film director Franco Zeffirelli. Howard Carter opened the sealed door to Tutankhamen's tomb 100 years ago on 16th February (we're continuing to find new material on this subject in the ILN archive), while on the 25th February it will be 300 years since the death of Sir Christopher Wren. It will also be 60 years since the scandalous Profumo Affair in March 1963, the same year in which the Duchess of Argyll's divorce was making headlines.

Pictures and further anniversaries can be found here.

Literary Link Up

The London Book Fair will take place from the 18th to 20th April this year, and is THE place to meet and network with others in the publishing industry.

Our Head of Sales & Research, Luci, will be visiting this year so do get in touch to fix a meeting if you've got a project we can help with, if you'd like to bend her ear about picture matters, or if you'd simply like a catch up and refresher on what's going on at Mary Evans.

Drop Luci a line at luci.gosling@maryevans.com to make a date.

Poems and Pictures

Irish Voices is the latest poetry collaboration via our highly popular and long-running Poems & Pictures blog. The online event takes place on 16 February and features a superb line-up of poets including Rosie Johnston, Maureen Boyle and Noel Duffy.

If you follow this link you can request a link to join free via Zoom.

And remember, the blog is open to anyone who would like to submit a poem inspired by images in our library. Find out how to do that here.

Blue Sky Thinking

Our aviation history offering took off at the speed of sound a few years ago, and continues to expand for the long haul with some top flight images.

The latest specialist aviation collection comes from new contributor Aviation Ancestry, which covers every conceivable aspect of advertising relating to aviation, including passenger flights, engineering firms and flying schools. The first 17,000 images are now online and you can get a taster of the kind of thing available via this small selection.

Do get in touch if you're working on a high flying project requiring pictures and we'll guarantee a safe landing.