Books This article is more than 10 years oldObituaryBarbara Firth obituary
This article is more than 10 years oldChildren's illustrator best known for the bedtime classic Can't You Sleep, Little Bear?Barbara Firth, who has died aged 84, achieved success relatively late in life with her rich, warm and evocative illustrations for books such as Martin Waddell's Can't You Sleep, Little Bear? Her realisation of Waddell's touching story of Big Bear helping Little Bear overcome his fear of the dark by bringing him bigger and bigger lanterns, before taking him outside to show him how the moon – the biggest lantern of them all – is always there, touched a chord with parents and children. Firth created an engaging, rumpled and shambling Big Bear and an enchantingly bright-eyed and eager Little Bear. Their cave is a haven of cosiness and Firth's illustrations are full of depth and surprise, as well as charm.
The book became a bedtime classic and won several prizes around the world, including the 1988 Nestlé Smarties gold award and a Kate Greenaway medal for Firth. There followed sequels such as You and Me, Little Bear and Let's Go Home, Little Bear. As stories, neither had such an impact as they lacked the lucid simplicity of the original, but Firth's instantly recognisable characters were as likable as ever.
"I have always been biased toward illustrating natural history," she wrote, "so it was a joy to be able to draw pages and pages of bears." She said that to research the book she spent hours at a zoo watching and recording the animals' movements and habits: "The first thing I thought about them was that they had such mean little eyes, but of course I had to get rid of that thought immediately as it would frighten the children."
Firth grew up in Hyde, Cheshire. From the age of three she drew plants and animals whenever she could, especially on visits to her uncle's farm. She had some encouragement from school but never studied art. Firth delighted in this lack of training: "I have been very lucky, as my career in drawing is also my favourite hobby."
After training in pattern-cutting at the London College of Fashion, Firth was offered a job in Marks and Spencer's design department, but she turned it down in favour of a position at Vogue, where she worked for 15 years as a production director on knitting, crocheting and dressmaking books. She then worked in production for Marshall Cavendish books, as well as supplying freelance illustrations.
It was at Marshall Cavendish that she met Amelia Edwards, one of the founders and the first creative director of the children's publisher Walker Books. In the 1980s, Edwards commissioned Firth to illustrate non-fiction for Walker Books titles such as Margaret Lane's The Spider (1982). Her potential was quickly spotted and Firth illustrated David Lloyd's Great Escapes, a series of animal stories that included characters such as Lady Loudly, a self-important goose, and Waldo, a tortoise that has the misfortune to be accidentally fired from a cannon.
She regarded these illustrations as the moment that her style changed. "My style started to get more lively: now I can be too exuberant, but once I'd found it was acceptable to draw in that way, there was no holding me. It worked, didn't it?"
For Sarah Hayes's The Grumpalump (1991), Firth created the eponymous creature and a cast of animals to play with it, while for Waddell's The Park in the Dark (1989), which she later said was her favourite book, and which won the Kurt Maschler award, she imagined three soft toy animals, Me, Loopy and Little Gee.
Firth's output was plentiful and of a consistently high standard. She illustrated books by other authors, such as Charles Causley and Jonathan London, but she returned again and again to stories by Waddell, who was always keen for Firth to be his illustrator. Soon after submitting any manuscript to Walker Books, he would ask the publisher hopefully: "Could this be Barbara?" The success of their working partnership lay in the subtle and delicate balance they created between words and pictures: Waddell wrote the words and gave no instructions or extra details – the imagination of them and particularly of the characters was entirely up to Firth.
For much of her life Firth lived with her sister, Betty, who survives her.
Barbara Firth, illustrator, born 20 September 1928; died 18 February 2013
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