THE lighter side of one of the Britain's best-loved novelists is being celebrated on Tyneside.

Graham Greene is best remembered as the author of adult novels such as Brighton Rock and The Third Man but yet a lesser known facet of the man has become a talking point at Seven Stories.

The Newcastle-based national centre for children’s books has acquired a set of illustrations for one of Greene’s four picture books for children, The Little Train.

The watercolour illustrations are by the equally celebrated Edward Ardizzone, one of the 20th Century’s most distinctive and influential illustrators.

The pictures were seen in public for the first time when they were put up for sale earlier this year by Antoinette Ardizzone, widow of the artist’s son, Nick.

Seven Stories immediately set about raising the money to buy the watercolours, which came with a dummy book in which the artist worked out the layout of text and pictures in pen and ink.

Seven months later, with contributions from fundraising charity The Art Fund, the V&A/MLA Purchase Grant Fund and the Friends of the National Libraries, the illustrations were added to Seven Stories’ growing collection of treasures.

The Little Train was first published in 1946, the same year that Thomas the Tank Engine made his first appearance in the second Railway Series book by the Rev Wilbert Awdry.

It was post-war Britain and, say Seven Stories, a time of dull austerity. Trains held the promise of an escape from the everyday.

Greene’s Little Train, like many of his adult characters, is a flawed hero who runs away from the rural security of Little Snoreing and steams down the main line to the city of Smokeoverall, where he loses his nerve and is rescued by a Scottish express.

The story was followed over the next few years by The Little Fire Engine, The Little Horse Bus and The Little Steamroller. All were illustrated by Dorothy Craigie, with whom Greene had an affair from the late 1930s to the late 1940s.

The books were reissued in 1973 and 1974 with illustrations by Ardizzone.

Since Seven Stories already has many of Craigie’s illustrations, the two contrasting sets can now be seen side by side.

Edward Ardizzone, son of an English mother and Italian father, was an official war artist during the Second World War.

Later he made a name for himself as an illustrator of children’s books, including his own Tim series and other famous titles such as Stig of the Dump and The Land of Green Ginger.

He was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts in 1970 and died in 1979, aged 79. Greene died in 1991 at the age of 86.

Kate Edwards, chief executive of Seven Stories, said: “Once again Seven Stories has saved a body of work that was in danger of being lost from our national heritage.

“Ardizzone and Greene are seminal figures in 20th Century literature and this was a rare chance to protect and preserve a national treasure for future generations to enjoy. We are grateful to the funders who supported us to purchase this fantastic artwork for The Little Train, and we look forward to making it available for everyone to enjoy.”

Stephen Deuchar, director of The Art Fund, said: “We are delighted to have been asked for the first time to help Seven Stories add to its wonderful collection of all things relating to children’s literature.

“This is an utterly charming collection of illustrations that have found a richly deserving home in Newcastle.”