![]() Her first four books, Spring Story, Summer Story, Autumn Story and Winter Story, were published in 1980, and their evocation of a curtained, courteous world of miniature cottages tucked beneath tree trunks and hard-working mice proved an instant hit. Even so, someone was so impressed by her artwork that she went home with a £10,000 contract, the highest-ever deal offered for a children’s book. She was called in for an interview, but turned up on the wrong day. It was her husband David who suggested she should turn her daydreams of hedgerow life into a book.Īfter months of work, her first effort ended up on the “slush piles” at three publishers – until a sharp-eyed editor at Collins rescued it. After graduating she worked as an illustrator of children’s Bibles. ![]() Jill Barklem originally conceived the idea for the stories in the 1970s, gazing out of a train window at the Essex countryside while commuting on the Central Line from her home in Epping to St Martin’s School of Art. ![]() ![]() Jill Barklem, who has died aged 66, was the author and illustrator of the “Brambly Hedge” series of books for young children her tales of the adventures of a community of mice living amid the wild roses, brambles and elderberries of an Essex hedgerow became instant classics, were adapted into a series of stop-motion television specials, and spawned merchandise ranging from Royal Doulton figures to chocolate and stationery. ![]()
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