02/08/2025
We are deeply saddened to announce that Allan Ahlberg, author of over 150 timeless books for children over the course of an extraordinary career spanning nearly 50 years, has died at the age of 87.
Together with his late wife Janet, Allan created books that remain best-in-class for children of every age: from Each Peach Pear Plum and Peepo! to genre-defining picture books Funnybones and Starting School to the boundary-pushing Jolly Postman books, filled with pull-out letters, games, and miniature books. And Allan wrote funny, clever and poignant books for older readers too. His career, like his books, defies categorisation.
Allan also collaborated with some of the most talented illustrators of his time – including Emma Chichester Clark, Raymond Briggs, Andre Amstutz, Bruce Ingman, Colin McNaughton, Fritz Wegner, Charlotte Voake and Faith Jaques. Allan also collaborated with his daughter, Jessica Ahlberg, with whom he created the pop-up variations on Goldilocks.
‘Allan was one of the most extraordinary authors I have had the privilege and pleasure to work with. His brilliant books – so many of them created with his late wife, Janet, the highly talented illustrator – have been described as 'mini masterpieces'. And they are; wonderful satisfying stories, the perfect marriage of text and illustration, full of surprise and humour, with something new to spot with every reading, and always with the child reader at their heart. Allan's ideas (and success) came from observing children and bringing some magic to the everyday - the excitement of the postman's delivery, the joy of peeping through holes at family life, or what if a friendly burglar steals a noisy baby (and then mends his ways!)? Allan's stories are some of the very best – true classics, which will be loved by children and families for years to come. Dear Allan, we will all miss you enormously.” – Francesca Dow, MD of PRH Children’s.
