Margaret Macadam

Margaret Macadam (1902–1991) was a British illustrator who was active in the 1920s and 1930s. In 1923-24, she was a member of the Society of Women Artists, and in 1925, she was awarded a scholarship to the Royal Academy Schools^[1] where a fellow student at the Royal Academy Schools was Amy Elton, who would later become her sister-in-law.^[2][3] Among her commercial works are several dust jacket designs for London-based publishers, with one of her most notable designs being the dust jacket for the first edition of Agatha Christie's first straight novel Giant's Bread. In 2016, an archive of Macadam's work was discovered,^[4] allowing her work on "Giant's Bread" to be connected to other known designs. The original artwork for Giant's Bread was sold for £550 in 2016.^[5] She is also known to have designed wallpaper, and greetings cards for Medici, London. Other examples of her work include a painting titled 1933.^[6] In May 1936 she married Francis Beart, who was already well-known as a racing motor cyclist and motor cycle tuner. Beart later gained recognition for tuning Formula Three racing cars.^[7] During World War II she trained as a nurse in the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) while her husband worked as an engineer for the Bristol Aeroplane Company.^[8]