Allan Ahlberg, an introvert who became a beloved author of blithesome, best-selling children’s books through collaborations with his wife, Janet Ahlberg, and other illustrators, died on July 29 in England. He was 87.
His death was announced by his publisher, Penguin Random House, which did not identify a specific location or a cause.
As a young man, Mr. Ahlberg held a series of solitary jobs, including digging graves. “I was looking for a job in the open air where they left you alone,” he told the British newspaper The Independent in 2008.
“I became a gravedigger by a process of elimination,” he said. “I had been a plumber’s mate, a soldier and a postman.”
But he fantasized about becoming a writer.
“I had all the romantic notions of the white suit and the panama hat,” he said in a 2006 interview with The Guardian. “All the Somerset Maugham images without any words to support them.”
It wasn’t until he was 22, and attending Sunderland Teacher Training College (now part of the University of Sunderland), that he met Janet Hall, his future wife, and was inspired to fulfill his dream.
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The post Allan Ahlberg, Whose Children’s Books Were Best Sellers, Dies at 87 appeared first on New York Times.
