There is a moment of innocent bliss that every two-year-old and every adult should experience. You sit together with a little book, turn the page and read,
A pudgy finger will point, a smile will appear. Those rosy peaches draw you in, watched by a little rabbit. You set off on the shortest of journeys through that happy country landscape with its cottage and green hills and stream and stone bridge, but it’s a moment never to be forgotten. You are in the gentle, magical world of The Ahlbergs.
Each Peach Pear Plum was one of the earliest collaborations by illustrator Janet and writer Allan, the husband and wife team who, for a brief time, created some of the most loved children’s books of the last 50 years.
It is a masterpiece of simplicity, charm, evocation and storytelling, where the glorious pictures and gentle text work in an unequalled harmony that celebrates the timeless fairy tales and nursery rhymes of early childhood. The cover is perfection, the work of an artist whose love of young children glows in every detail.
I was deeply saddened to hear of the recent death of Allan Ahlberg. He was one of my heroes and a true inspiration for those like me who wanted to be a children’s writer. Janet had been tragically taken by cancer at the age of just fifty in 1994, a devastating loss – I can still recall reeling at the news.
Allan was an exceptional author for children, my favourite of all time, and someone who wrote with great warmth and wit while telling all kinds of tales for children, from the very youngest ages. He loved a joke and he knew lots of good ones.
We’ve always owned lots of Ahlberg books, and I gathered them together to write this piece. They’re battered, every single one of the twenty plus, testament to the skill of author and illustrator in delighting their young audiences (and entertaining adults). They were adored by the kids at the school where I worked in the 80s and 90s, and they were loved by my own children at home. You could never re-read the silly and romping Cops and Robbers too often.
Allan’s range was remarkable, whether creating possibly the best ever book for babies…
…or writing poems that joyously celebrated the fun and frustrations of school days:
The books made with Janet are the best – her illustrations have the same level of wit and warmth and joy as the words. Together they created several books that stand alongside the very best. The test in publishing is always, ‘Do they still sell, even after 30, 40 or more years?’ Just look in bookshops and you’ll see all of these wonderful classics:
There’s also the classic picture book Peepo, but our copy was borrowed and never returned. Read to pieces, with love, no doubt. Later on the Ahlbergs created a memorable series, based on the timeless card game, Happy Families:
Our children returned to them again and again, and so did we.
Re-reading many Ahlberg books again this week, and looking now through the eyes of an experienced children’s writer, I am staggered by how good they are, how timeless, simple and beautiful. But they are are also funny and wacky – just the things to get children reading.
I’d forgotten all about The Worm Book, for example:
These are books that allow young imaginations to run riot. So many children, after reading this, will pick up a pencil and draw their own silly worms: creating, experimenting with humour and style, labelling, sharing, laughing, enjoying.
Each Peach Pear Plum, The Worm Book and the others shown above, crumpled by love as they are, are back on our shelves now, but as soon as some kids visit they’ll be out again…
So, goodbye and thank you, dear Allan and Janet. You may not be with us any more, but your exquisite books will be here for a very long time.
