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Always loved the book and the illustrations within as a kid.
The beautiful hare that raced across the books pages has just sold again for £82k.
Anyway, for any other lovers of the book and hares in general, here's the Beebs piece on the sale. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c87ld115ndvo
I found it a fascinating book as a kid - I like that it worked on lots of layers - there was obviously quite a sophisticatedly encrypted message in there (and it seems like the person who found the hare hadn't really decrypted it). But it worked just as well as a sort of Where's Wally, just finding the hare on each page.
Given that it was so successful it's surprising he hasn't really done much more - theres a second book that I wasn't aware of which is sort of untitled because the challenge is to work out what the book is called. Would have made it quite difficult to market I guess. Problematically now that it's only available second hand the listings for it.... give away the title
I remember Cadbury's trading on the mania that surround Masquerade at the time and commissioning a similar book from another artist/illustrator where golden eggs were the prizes
My user name hint that I’m quite close to where it was buried
The illustrations were wonderfully 70's and hugely detailed. I didn't hours looking at them and it's part of the train why I love hares so much.
Williamson did create least another similar book, might have been 2 in fact, can't quite remember but they didn't have an actual buried treasure like Masquerade did.
People got up to some mad stuff looking for the original golden hare, the guy that almost fell off a cliff etc, so he decided on a different hunt in the sequel.
The story of the decoding of the book and the funding of the treasure (involving sex, intrigue and a couple of very p*ssed of teachers would actually make an excellent made for TV movie!
For those interested here is the full story including how to decide the book!
https://www.sleuthsayers.org/2023/04/the-mystery-at-heart-of-masquerade.html?m=1
Oh, they're were foreign imitators too,I think one buried treasure, somewhere in Europe has still to be found!
An modern day equivalent (although very much more for adults) would be Bobby Fingers YouTube videos I guess 🙂
His second book was The Bee on The Comb and was beautiful too. I enjoyed working out its name.
Oh, they're were foreign imitators too,I think one buried treasure, somewhere in Europe has still to be found!
If you're interested in how those crazy Americans do it, Gold & Greed, The Hunt for Fenn's Treasure on Netflix is well worth a watch.
https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/81636832
The solution is pretty interesting in itself.
https://dreamsofgerontius.com/2016/10/05/masquerade-by-kit-williams-the-solution/
Oh, they're were foreign imitators too,I think one buried treasure, somewhere in Europe has still to be found!
If you're interested in how those crazy Americans do it, Gold & Greed, The Hunt for Fenn's Treasure on Netflix is well worth a watch.
The excellent Tim Harford did a podcast on the US one just recently.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0mfr4cn
I had never heard of the second book so I thought I might get my wife to buy it on ebay as a xmas present for me to work out......so thanks for that gowerboy.
I had never heard of the second book so I thought I might get my wife to buy it on ebay as a xmas present for me to work out......so thanks for that gowerboy.
Ooops. Doh. Sorry. I hadn’t considered it would still be an unknown after the year and a day grand reveal on Wogan.
I had never heard of the second book so I thought I might get my wife to buy it on ebay as a xmas present for me to work out.
Ask her to get you Cane's Jawbone instead - that'll keep you busy 🙂