Dr Shinfiddler’s Musical Zoo

Dr Shinfiddler’s Musical Zoo was intended as a follow-up to Bananas in Pyjamas: another book of nonsense songs and poems. Unfortunately it was never published, although Carey did indeed complete the work. Like the original Bananas in Pyjamas, it would have been illustrated by Tom Barling, who produced a handful of pictures for the volume, as shown below. The book contains:

• Twelve songs (or thirteen, if counting a reprise of number 12 with different words);
• An appendix of poems and ideas for project work with children;
• Illustrations for some of the poems and songs.

The mock-up runs to 100 pages and, according to the few people who have seen it, is hilarious.

Carey completed the book and drafted a possible scenario for publishing. Unfortunately, though, the project went no further. It had taken a lot of persuasion, and the intervention of a company director, to get even Bananas in Pyjamas off the ground (as recalled in Composer Interviews Nº1: Carey Blyton; see the extract on the Bananas in Pyjamas page)—notwithstanding the massive subsequent popularity of the titular song and its spin-offs. For Dr Shinfiddler, sadly there was no similar insider support; and, of course, at the time it was written, the massive global popularity of Bananas was still years into the future, so there was no impetus to give a similar chance to another venture in the same vein.

Just four illustrations were tentatively produced for the book; perhaps more would have been done had the project gone ahead. Here are the surviving four:

Dr Aloysius Q. Shinfiddler

Dr Shinfiddler’s Aquarium

The Gilded Harp—Celestial Bird!

The Fierce and Dreadful Wurlitzer