Shirley Hughes appreciation thread

[Kankurette]

Shirley Hughes, creator of Dogger and the Alfie books, has died: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-60584090

Children's author and illustrator Shirley Hughes has died aged 94, her family has confirmed.
Hughes was best known for creating the Alfie book series, as well as children's picture book Dogger.
She died "peacefully at home after a short illness" on Friday in London, her family told the PA news agency.
"Shirley's books about everyday family life are adored by generations of families and she is held in the highest esteem by her peers," they said.
Hughes illustrated 200 children's books throughout her career, selling more than 10 million copies.
Born in West Kirby, the daughter of department store chain owner shop TJ Hughes, she studied drawing and costume design at the Liverpool School of Art; and fine art at Oxford's Ruskin School of Art.
Her early work included illustrations for Dorothy Edwards' My Naughty Little Sister, before she wrote and illustrated her own first book, Lucy And Tom's Day, in 1960.

Hughes' much-loved and widely-read series Alfie was first published in 1977 and centred around a young boy and his little sister, Annie Rose.
While Dogger, from the same year, was about a little boy who loses his stuffed dog toy. The inspiration behind it came from a real life lost toy, she told PA in 2017. "We did look everywhere, but we never found it," she said. "[The actual] Dogger was a present to our son when he was two-years-old.
"At that time, both his ears flopped over, but [Dogger] was pressed so lovingly against his owner's face that one ear was pushed upwards, so when I came to do the story I used him as a model."

Gonna have to dig up my old kids' books now. I always loved her art. Didn't know she was from the Wirral either!

[Virgo76]

A very talented author. I'm ashamed to admit that until today I thought she had already died.

[jamiefairlie]

Sad, loved all her work - Viking, Forties, Dogger, Fisher, Sole and Bailey and all the others.

Beep beep beep

[Kankurette]

A very talented author. I'm ashamed to admit that until today I thought she had already died.

So did I. Apparently she was a few years below my grandma (who has been dead for ages) at school.

[Virgo76]

So did I. Apparently she was a few years below my grandma (who has been dead for ages) at school.

She used to be on TV quite a bit when I was a child in the 1980s. She seemed very old to me then. Great though.

[notjosh]

Had an audio book of some of her Alfie and Annie Rose stories when I was a kid. I have a very distinct memory of listening to it on a glorious summer's eve when I'd been sent upstairs at my usual bedtime but could still hear all the other kids playing outside without me, and then hearing a story where Alfie was in the exact same position.

As the kids would say nowadays, I felt 'seen'.