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Barbara Firth (1928-2013)
The illustrator, Barbara Firth, is best known for her children’s books, and especially her collaborations with Martin Waddell on the ‘Little Bear’ series, which includes the award-winning bedtime classic, Can’t You Sleep, Little Bear? (1988). Her illustrations have been described as ‘rich, warm and evocative’ (Julia Eccleshare, 2013). Barbara Firth was born in Cheshire on 20 September 1928, the daughter of a railway worker. Her family came from Yorkshire stock comprising farmers and blacksmiths. Growing up in Hyde, she showed an interest in art from the age of three, and enjoyed drawing animals and plants whenever she could, especially during visits to her uncles’ farms. Her father and her art teachers encouraged her, but the Head of her secondary school would not allow her to include art among the subjects for her leaving examinations.
Barbara Firth moved to London, where she took a job with Marks and Spencer, first working as a junior clerk in the head office, and then – training at London College of Fashion – in cutting, design, patterns and show cards.
After seven years, she left to work with a studio that designed displays for the exteriors of cinemas, but this was not a success and she was soon sacked. However, this led to her gaining a position as a production designer for Vogue. She remained with the magazine for 15 years, while, on the side, creating freelance knitting and crochet instruction diagrams. At the age of 40, she also began to take evening classes and, during the following four years, completed a foundation course.
In the early 1970s, Barbara Firth followed her colleague, Pam Dawson, editor of The Vogue Knitting Book, to work in the production of Marshall Cavendish’s craft part works – Golden Hands, Crafts and Grow Your Own – as well as supplying freelance illustrations. During the decade, her parents moved to Wealdstone, Middlesex, and settled at 51 Radcliffe Road. Then, when her mother became ill, she and her sister, Betty, moved in. Following her death in 1979, they stayed on, and Barbara filled the house with pets (that sometimes provided models for her illustrations).
While working for Marshall Cavendish, Barbara Firth met Amelia Edwards, who later became first creative director of the children’s publisher, Walker Books. She commissioned Firth to illustrate such non-fiction titles as Margaret Lane’s The Spider (1982) and Wendy Boase’s Country Animals (1983). Out of these came the opportunity to illustrate a series of fictional animal stories, ‘Great Escapes’, by David Lloyd, whom Barbara had already appreciated as an editor. In responding to this series, her style evolved into the exuberant one for which she remains known.
In 1988, Barbara Firth illustrated Martin Waddell’s Can’t You Sleep, Little Bear?, which David Lloyd has described as ‘As perfect a picture-book as anyone could hope to make’ (in a tribute to Firth on the Walker Books website). It won the 1988 Nestlé’s Smarties gold award, and gained Firth the 1988 Kate Greenaway Medal. There followed four sequels: Let’s Go Home, Little Bear (1991), You and Me, Little Bear (1996), Well Done, Little Bear (1999) and Sleep Tight, Little Bear (2005). A further collaboration with Martin Waddell – The Park in the Dark (1989) – won the 1989 Emil/Kurt Maschler Award.
Barbara Firth died on 18 February 2013. She was survived by her sister, Betty.
Further reading:
Julia Eccleshare, ‘Barbara Firth’, Guardian, 10 March 2013 [obituary];
Stephanie Nettell, ‘Authorgraph No 68: Barbara Firth’, Books for Keeps, May 1991
![Well Done, Little Bear [II]](https://chrisbeetles.com/storage/29150/conversions/79255egzntgh-masonry.jpg)
![Big Bear and Little Bear enjoying a Book [II]](https://chrisbeetles.com/storage/28737/conversions/7c4gzoeqv3ks-masonry.jpg)
