Allan and Janet Ahlberg – the couple behind Britain’s most beloved children’s books

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.

The Jolly Postman or Other People’s Letters is an interactive children’s picture book by Janet and Allan Ahlberg. (Source: amazon.in)

The creative process

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.

Sad end to a fabulous partnership

Janet and Allan Ahlberg with their daughter Jessica. (Source: Better Reading)

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.