The dust-jacket illustrations for John McNeillie’sfirst three books: Wigtown Ploughman: Part of his Life (Putnam, 1939), Glasgow Keelie (Putnam, 1940) and Morryharn Farm (Putnam, 1941) were all painted by Robert Vere ‘Robin’ Darwin (1910-1974), a landscape and portrait painter who became principal of the Royal College of Art in 1948. He was a great-grandson of Charles Darwin.
The woodcuts that illustrate A Poacher’s Handbook (Heinemann, 1950), Fresh Woods (Heinemann, 1951) and Pastures New (Heinemann, 1952) and provide the dust-jacket illustrations for those books, were by Barbara Greg (1900-1983) who studied wood-engraving under W. T. Smith at the Slade School c.1919-1920. She subsequently married fellow-student Norman Janes (1892-1980), himself a gifted book illustrator. Charles F. Tunnicliffe (1901-1979) who illustrated A Galloway Childhood (Heinemann, 1967) studied at the Royal College of Art. John McNeillie’s life of his friend Portrait of a Country Artist: C. F. Tunnicliffe RA was published, as by Ian Niall, by Gollancz in 1980. The Welsh illustrator E. Meirion Roberts(1913-2000), with whom John McNeillie enjoyed very close friendship (they were both devoted fly-fishermen), illustrated The Country Blacksmith (Heinemann, 1966).
