The Enchanted Illustrated Letters From Sir Henry Thornhill (Kaka)
Author: Charles Grimaldi

There is a new English site with the largest collection of illustrated correspondence in the world. www.ultimategrandparent.com is a touching story of a grandfather’s unique way of creating a loving relationship with his grandchildren, who early last century, by a twist of fate, had moved across the world to India, whilst he had just returned from India to England to be close to his grandchildren.

This separation from his grandchildren was a great sadness to Sir Henry. He wanted so much to stay in touch, and he had always enjoyed drawing and painting. As a young child he had received letters from his father, which included little pen and ink drawings. So, he decided to write and illustrate cards and letters to each of his four grandchildren every week in what has been described as a truly unique and enchanting expression of love by a grandfather for his grandchildren. One of Sir Henry’s original letters to his grandchildren is put on the site every week, and you can enjoy it by reading it yourself or hearing it read by Sir Henry’s great grandson Charles. You can also look at his cards with the adventures of Hathi and Mr Hare, and even send an original card with your own message to a loved one. In fact, so popular are his letters and cards that he has started to write new notebook letters each week on topical subjects and with a gently educational style, which appeal to children and adults alike.

When you visit the site, you will discover that Sir Henry signed all the correspondence ‘Kaka? So why did Sir Henry sign the letters Kaka? Well, when his granddaughter Margaret was very young, she couldn't say grandpa, so instead she would say Kaka. This name stuck, and from that moment, he always referred to himself as Kaka, and signed all of his letters and cards to his grandchildren with this nickname.



A Peter Pan like character in real life, Kaka seemed instinctively to understand children and he used his vivid imagination to constantly amuse his grandchildren. He introduced delightful animated characters led by the inseparable (if unlikely friends) Hathi the jolly elephant and Mr Hare. Mr Hare is confident and athletic, whilst Hathi's catch phrase 'nothing to it really' reflects his surprising success at activities and sports which elephants simply shouldn't be capable of playing! They get up to all sorts of adventures and are joined by Mughli Ji the fish who walks on his tail, the brightly coloured, fashion conscious, Cockiobolli birds, Mrs Stork, Captain Cormorant, Mr Frog and others.

Kaka never really grew up and he loved the popular new genre of the comic strip, so he used to send comics to his distant grandchildren. However his daughter Madge, unlike Kaka, was a rather strict Victorian who sternly disapproved of comic strips and forbade Kaka from sending them to the grandchildren. He was extremely disappointed, but had to stop until he dreamed up the idea of creating his own comic strips just for the grandchildren. He thought that this would be a great way to amuse his distant grandchildren, and he disguised them from his daughter by continuing to draw and send his weekly postcards, but with one crucial difference. Instead of each card depicting a complete story of Hathi and Hare, he stretched the action over two, four and up to ten weeks, thereby truly creating his own comic strips? Of course, the grandchildren loved following Hathi and Hare’s attempts at learning to fly, or their sea trip in an upside down barrel; or Mr Hare teaching Hathi to dive. And the best part is that their strict mother Madge never realised that he had invented his own comic strips!

Whilst he was sending the cards to little Ann and Elizabeth, the three-sided letters to the older Teddy and Margaret were still being sent as well every week. To Teddy they were full of wonderful inventions such as the hedge hopping tank or the steam driven aeroplane.

These must have been so exciting to the young boy Teddy and Kaka must have read and researched widely to find them .It is tempting to run a ‘whatever happened to these?series , where the success or failure of these inventions is discovered. The exotic car with a propeller on the front, for example, does still exist. In addition to it being spotted in a petrol station in Hampshire, England a few years ago, it was an attraction at the annual Festival of Speed at Goodwood’s vintage cars weekend in England a couple of years back.

To Margaret the letters contained what Kaka considered to be more suited to girls. Wildlife and scenery jump out of the pages and Kaka’s love of wild life brings a distant and exotic world to life in a magical fashion. No opportunity was missed to amuse and excite the interest of his beloved grandchildren, so that even the envelopes were covered in drawings of rabbits, elephants and wonderful scenery. Indeed often the address was cleverly included to be part of the picture, for example, on a signpost, board or small envelope carried in the beak of a passing heron!

In the mid 1980’s, a book was published entitled ‘Pictures in the Post? with a foreword by Princess Anne, The Princess Royal. This book went to number 6 in the best sellers list in the UK in the Christmas of 1986 and was described in a national newspaper as Princess Anne’s book choice for Christmas that year. Following the publication of Pictures in the Post a major children’s programme in the UK: - Blue Peter featured the story and to the amazement of everyone people started to contact the programme to say that they too had illustrated letters from Kaka. In all eight people where discovered who had letters and illustrated envelopes, which had all been kept. Blue Peter covered this astonishing development in a further feature and yet another person came forward, but we lost contact before we managed to see their letters.

All of the 200 newly discovered letters, cards and envelopes were displayed on the programme and we wonder how many more people have letters from Sir Henry. We do know that there are more, because one of the people who came forward with the letters to her and her brother in the 1930’s, could remember sitting on Sir Henry’s lap in his house on Lake Geneva, when he wrote to sick children whom he had heard about. We believe that Kaka would have loved the internet and email, and we hope that he would have approved of, and shared in, our enjoyment in enabling children everywhere around the globe to share in the experience of receiving a card or letter from Kaka.

So visit www.ultimategrandparent.com and enjoy this unique, touching and delightful expression of love. You can even write to Sir Henry and ask for one of his new, weekly, notebook letters to be dedicated to your grandchild/children. Details are on the site.

And finally, you might like to look in your attic to see whether you too have any letters from Sir Henry? The Enchanted Letters From Kaka








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www.ultimategrandparent.com

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