Famed for her 1977 picture book Dogger , Shirley Hughes penned over fifty children’s stories, illustrated more than 200, and received numerous awards during her long career....
Named Winifred when she was born in West Kirby in 1927, Hughes enjoyed a childhood that included trips to the theatre and Walker Art Gallery, and seemed destined to pursue an artistic career. During her time at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art she was encouraged to work on picture books and, after graduating, provided illustrations for Noel Streatfeild and Dorothy Edwards. Her images for My Naughty Little Sister were especially well received – rich with elements that capture everyday moments, and reflecting perhaps her admiration for Arthur Rackham’s detailed drawings, they demonstrate the observational skill that would become her hallmark.
The first book that Hughes both wrote and illustrated was Lucy and Tom’s Day in 1960. Recreating the activities of an ordinary day in the lives of the two preschoolers, it developed over many years into a series of seven books highlighting the happy simplicity of the children’s lives.
Hughes made a more significant mark in the publishing world when Dogger , the story of a boy who loses a beloved toy, received the Kate Greenaway Medal for its illustrations in 1977 – thirty years later a public vote declared it the favourite in the award’s fifty-year history.
Following Dogger , Hughes became much more prolific and in 1981 Alfie, her most recurring character by far, sprang to life. His carefree antics ran to 32 books, the last of which, Alfie on Holiday , was published in 2019.
Alongside the Alfie books, three other series (Tales from Trotter Street, Olly and Me, and Dixie O’Day) and dozens of individual picture books, Hughes also found time in her later life to pen four novels. Hero on a Bicycle was nominated for the Blue Peter Best Book Award in 2012 and saw the author take on a more serious tone, following the ventures of 14-year-old Paolo in Nazi-occupied Florence. Her own wartime experience as a teenager inspired her 2015 novel Whistling in the Dark .
Hughes received the Eleanor Farjeon Award, the BookTrust’s first lifetime achievement award, Fellowship of the Royal Society of Literature, honorary degrees and, in 2017, a CBE. She died in 2022 at her London home.
