I work by setting up still-life groups and draw from ‘life’ in coloured pencils. The rescue from the attic was to be the inspiration for my story (though the method of rescue in the book, involving handkerchief parachutes and a toy plane, was a little more elaborate than the one in real life). Old Bear, himself, was one of those toys and I clearly remember our reunion. On one occasion some of my toys were packed away in the attic to be rescued two years later on our return to the cottage. When I was a child my father was in the Royal Navy and we moved house every two years.
I began the first book by gathering together the original group of toys chosen for their varying appearance and character. That book was to be ‘Old Bear’ and Caroline and I worked together on this and subsequent Old Bear books (and the TV stories) for the next 25 years. The next day I asked Caroline if I could write the story and she seemed pleased with the idea. Then you can put in the story what you want to draw.”
He said in his usual gruff manner, ”Write it yourself. One day I happened to bump into Raymond Briggs (one of our tutors when we were at college in Brighton) and I told him about my possible book. Someone else was to write the story but, after many months, no story had appeared. I followed my own advice and, as the house was full of toys at the time, that’s what I drew (my very first toy drawing happened to be Bramwell Brown). I drew some of the old toys as commissions and some just for fun and soon greetings cards were produced from some of my drawings.īy chance, Caroline Roberts, an editor at the publisher, Hutchinsons, saw one of my greetings cards and asked me to illustrate a picture book. I had always told my GCSE and A level art students that it didn’t matter what they drew – just to grab the first thing that came to hand and draw. Back in 1980 when I left teaching to have my first child, I began to spend any spare time I had, drawing.
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