My mother is from England, and ordered the books she read me from a British company called Red House Books.
She read me Enid Blyton's Noddy books and the pre-television series Postman Pat stories by John Cunliffe (I was trying to find a link for that, but everything is about the show, which looks quite different).
Janet and Allan Ahlberg were a husband-and-wife writing and illustrating team. Janet (now deceased; the link discusses John's grief among other things, just as a warning) was the illustrator and Allan writes. They did everything from rhymes for infants to The Bear Nobody Wanted, a chapter book that was probably my first introduction to the development of a character's personality.
The Ahlbergs grew up in 1940s Britain and many of Janet's illustrations show that world--the cramped houses, the miniscule greenhouse at the end of the back garden, the washtub and wringer, the rag-and-bone man. It was as good as fairyland to me in 1980s and 90s American suburbia.
Shirley Hughes writes and illustrates her own stories, usually from children Niko's age to perhaps 8, but as you can see in the Guardian article she also experiments with other genres. She is an amazing painter. Stories By Firelight didn't enthrall me as a small child the way her Alfie and Annie Rose characters did, but as an adult I'm completely blown away by her imagination and artistic skill.
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Date: 2011-02-11 04:23 pm (UTC)She read me Enid Blyton's Noddy books and the pre-television series Postman Pat stories by John Cunliffe (I was trying to find a link for that, but everything is about the show, which looks quite different).
But the very best books were by Janet and Allan Ahlberg and Shirley Hughes.
Janet and Allan Ahlberg were a husband-and-wife writing and illustrating team. Janet (now deceased; the link discusses John's grief among other things, just as a warning) was the illustrator and Allan writes. They did everything from rhymes for infants to The Bear Nobody Wanted, a chapter book that was probably my first introduction to the development of a character's personality.
The Ahlbergs grew up in 1940s Britain and many of Janet's illustrations show that world--the cramped houses, the miniscule greenhouse at the end of the back garden, the washtub and wringer, the rag-and-bone man. It was as good as fairyland to me in 1980s and 90s American suburbia.
Shirley Hughes writes and illustrates her own stories, usually from children Niko's age to perhaps 8, but as you can see in the Guardian article she also experiments with other genres. She is an amazing painter. Stories By Firelight didn't enthrall me as a small child the way her Alfie and Annie Rose characters did, but as an adult I'm completely blown away by her imagination and artistic skill.