Partners in story and life: Allan and Janet Ahlberg – the couple behind Britain's most beloved children's books

Indian Express

2 hours ago

The world of children's literature has lost one of its most beloved voices. British author Allan Ahlberg, who wrote over 150 books and redefined the picture book alongside his late wife and illustrator Janet Ahlberg, passed away on July 29, 2025, at the age of 87. The Ahlbergs' children's books have shaped generations of young readers around the world.
Allan and Janet Ahlberg's partnership as an author-illustrator couple was legendary. They were creative soulmates, bound by marriage, art, and an enduring curiosity about the minds of children. As the late academic and children's literature expert Morag Styles wrote in her posthumously published obituary for Allan Ahlberg in the Guardian: 'They enjoyed an intimacy that also characterised their working lives. One secret of their success lay in the dynamic relationship they created between word and picture; another was their joint ability to view the world as if through the eyes of a child.'
Their collaboration began almost by accident. In the early 1970s, Allan was working as a primary school teacher in England, and Janet, a trained illustrator, had grown frustrated with the non-fiction commissions she was receiving. As Allan told the magazine Books for Keeps in an article published May 14, 1982, 'Janet hadn't been offered any stories to illustrate, so she asked me to write one. I discovered that I could do it. I found I liked it too—so I kept at it.'
The result was Here Are the Brick Street Boys (1975), the first of many collaborations that would come to define children's publishing in Britain. Over the next two decades, they produced hits such as Each Peach Pear Plum, Peepo!, Funnybones, Burglar Bill, and The Jolly Postman, titles that have delighted generations of readers.
The couple painstakingly designed their books down to the endpapers and typography. Styles called Each Peach Pear Plum (1978) 'about as perfect as a picturebook could be,' with its nursery rhyme characters and deceptively simple rhyming text. Peepo! (1981), a board book that allows young readers to peer through cut-out holes in the pages, is both a game and a poignant snapshot of life during the Second World War.
But it was The Jolly Postman (1986) that cemented the Ahlbergs' legacy. A playful, interactive story told through letters and postcards that readers could physically remove and open, it sold millions of copies worldwide and revolutionised the format of picture books.
Their creative process was as unconventional as their books. Though they lived and worked under the same roof, they never shared a studio. 'We don't work together,' Allan told Books for Keeps 'That would drive us both crazy. I need silence when I'm working, for example, and Janet likes having the radio on.' He wrote in the mornings, while Janet, a night owl, illustrated in the afternoons and evenings.
Their daughter, Jessica, born in 1980, also shaped their work. Allan once described The Baby's Catalogue (1982), one of their most beloved titles, as inspired by Jessica's fascination with baby images in magazines.
Their collaboration came to a heartbreaking end in 1994 when Janet died of cancer at just 50. He compiled Janet's Last Book in 1997, a private volume honouring her life and work. He would go on to collaborate with other illustrators, including Raymond Briggs (The Adventures of Bert) and Bruce Ingman (The Pencil), and later with Jessica, now a successful illustrator herself.
In 2014, Allan made headlines for refusing the Booktrust Lifetime Achievement Award because it was sponsored by Amazon. He took issue with the company's tax practices, and his principled stand earned him widespread respect.
Allan Ahlberg never stopped writing, but he always remained anchored to the partnership that launched his career.
In their books, as in life, Janet and Allan Ahlberg saw the world not just for children but through them. Their stories, playful on the surface, carried the wisdom of adults who understood just how fleeting and important is childhood.
Aishwarya Khosla is a journalist currently serving as Deputy Copy Editor at The Indian Express. Her writings examine the interplay of culture, identity, and politics.
She began her career at the Hindustan Times, where she covered books, theatre, culture, and the Punjabi diaspora. Her editorial expertise spans the Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Punjab and Online desks.
She was the recipient of the The Nehru Fellowship in Politics and Elections, where she studied political campaigns, policy research, political strategy and communications for a year.
She pens The Indian Express newsletter, Meanwhile, Back Home.
Write to her at [e-mail] or [e-mail]. You can follow her on Instagram: @ink_and_ideology, and X: @KhoslaAishwarya. ... Read More