Shirley Hughes

She was born and grew up on the Wirral her father owned the well known apartment store TJ Hughes, she studies at Liverpool art school and in Oxford at the Ruskin School of Art, she then went on to become one of the countries best illustrators. Her first commercial illustrations were for other writers, but she went onto design her own books, her first one was Lucy and Tom's Day in 1960. One of the most loved books and best known of hers is Dogger which in 1977 won the Kate Greenaway award, her second of these was for her own adaptation of Cinderella, it was published as Ella's big chance.
The authenticity and creativeness in this picture book are outstanding to the point where you can see sense the texture of her clothes illustrated in the book all of which were designed by Shirley.

Her book Ella's Big Chance

An exhibition of her work has been held at the Ashmoleun Museum in Oxford and the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool. An autobiography of Shirley was published in 2002 by Bodley Head which gave an insight into the artists lifetime of illustrative work.

She is now 86 years of age and has written and illustrated hundreds of books and still has the creativity and vision which she comes on after more than 40 years of illustrating. My admiration of this great artist is immense. Her ability to turn an illustration into a theoretical allusion is outstanding this ability is epitomized in the beautiful Ella's Chance.