My introduction to David Hand was about thirty years ago when I used to possess a Gingernut Annual, writes April Spencer. As far as I can remember the cover was m full colour, but I believe the inside illustrations were just in two colours, black and orange. The images were very strong and also the signature of David Hand stuck in my mind visually, lust as now, my children always recognise the Walt Disney signature. Gingemut of course, was the main character in the Animaland series produced by G.B. Animation.
In the seventies I began to research into the history of British animation, and thus started to ferret out animators who had worked at G.B. Anixnation in Cookham between 1944 and
1950.
So, it was a great thrill when, in 1974, whilst on a ‘hero worshipping’ trip to California I was able to meet and talk to David Hand. He gave me his account of his six years working in England after the War to add to the other stories that I had gathered from the artists who had worked for him; and he related his history in animation up to and including his 14 years at the Disney Studios, where he had been Supervising Director on Snow White and Bambi.
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