Thank you to our friends at Penguin Random House for permission to reproduce this tribute to Shirley Hughes, one of our most beloved children’s authors, who died in February this year at the age of 94.

Shirley was an award-winning author of more than 50 children’s books, and illustrator of some 200 more, with worldwide sales of more than 11m. In addition to her own work, Shirley championed the cause of illustrators and authors, serving on the management committees of the Society of Authors, Public Lending Right and the Library and Information Services Council.

Shirley’s exceptional contribution to children’s books was widely recognised. In 1984 she received the Eleanor Farjeon award for services to children’s literature, was the first winner of the BookTrust lifetime achievement award in 2015, awarded an OBE in 1999 and CBE in 2017.

Message from Andrea Macdonald, Shirley’s Editor and Editorial Director at Penguin Random House Children’s Books:

I first started working with Shirley Hughes in 2007, when I joined Random House Children’s Books as an Assistant Editor and was given the task of preparing the paperback edition of her latest Alfie book. I remember so clearly walking up the stately, blossom-lined road where she lived in Holland Park to hand-deliver a set of proofs, nervous about meeting this living legend who loomed so large in the childhoods of so many, my own included. But Shirley threw open her door and her arms and welcomed me with such charm and generosity: I knew instantly that this was going to be joyful rather than intimidating.

Meetings with her were always warm and wonderful – in the mornings you’d sit at her kitchen table with a coffee made with hot milk and the Guardian on the go, but most often I went in the early evening and we had white wine and crackers in her amazing drawing room surrounded by art and books, or during the pandemic-days sitting on her front step: I had to pinch myself at my incredible luck.

Shirley loved being collaborative, and she always wanted to know my thoughts and how the designer felt about how the book was progressing. And then when we were done working out text tweaks, having looked at her glorious artwork in her studio, she told me brilliant stories – about growing up on the Wirral going to dances, about her art school days, her housemates when she first moved to London to make her living as an illustrator, and proudly about her family. We talked about what Alfie would be like when he grew up, and one evening we created a whole Alfie plot where Bernard, his roguish best friend, grows up and falls madly in love with Annie Rose, Alfie’s tempestuous little sister.

Shirley was brilliant at capturing children: their movements, faces, emotions and postures in her gorgeous inky line, but also their dramas and concerns in her perfectly-pitched, never patronising stories. Learning to put your wellies on the right feet IS a very big deal! Losing your favourite toy IS pure heartbreak. Her books are filled with such humanity and love; when calamity strikes there is Bella to do a very kind thing for her brother, Dave, or Maureen (the plumber-wannabe who lives a few doors down from Alfie) to come up with an ingenious solution. Shirley was fanatical about the pure joy of picture books – of taking the time to sit and look at illustrations, and the importance of children learning to look up and out into their worlds. She always wanted to know what was going on in the picture book world, the new voices, and also all about the booksellers who she knew were absolutely pivotal in recommending her books. Shirley’s admiration and support for independent booksellers in particular was unwavering, and I know she would be incredibly touched by the warm and generous tributes the indie community have made about her since her passing.

Her values remained such a constant in her work, right up to her final book – a sequel 40 years in the making – Dogger’s Christmas, which was received so happily by booksellers, and then by new generations of parents and children discovering her work. And the artwork for Dogger’s Christmas, like all of Shirley’s books, was delivered way ahead of schedule: Shirley was a consummate professional even at the age of 94.

I’ll always feel so proud and privileged to have stepped into Shirley’s world. She was a very special author and illustrator, but she was also a dear friend. She had a brilliant sense of humour and was also incredibly caring: she wrote to me last autumn when my dad died, and her wise and loving words on grief were so comforting and meaningful to me. I’m so glad we have the world of her books to retreat to. There is where we find Shirley, always doing something very kind and playful and human.