Children’s author Shirley Hughes wins lifetime achievement award
Monday, July 6, 2015
Author and illustrator Shirley Hughes has been chosen as the winner of the first ever Book Trust Lifetime Achievement Award.
The prize, which celebrates the work of an author or illustrator who has made an outstanding contribution to children’s literature, will be presented to Ms Hughes during Book Trust’s Children’s Book Week on 6-12 July.
The aim of Children’s Book Week is to celebrate and encourage reading for pleasure. The Book Trust website features a number of tips and ideas on how schools and families can take part.
Best known for the ‘Alfie’ picture book series and ‘Dogger’, winner of the 1977 Kate Greenaway Medal, Shirley Hughes has sold more than nine million books. Next month sees the release of a brand new Alfie book, ‘Alfie Outdoors’.
The author and illustrator, who celebrates her 88th birthday this month, is also re-issuing her very first book, ‘Lucy and Tom at the Seaside’, which was published 55 years ago in 1960.
Diana Gerald, chief executive of Book Trust, said, ‘Book Trust is thrilled that our first ever Lifetime Achievement Award goes to someone whose remarkable, multi-talented contribution to children's fiction spans several generations and continues to this day. Her characters are imprinted on the memories of two or three generations, a recognition of their enduring charm. This evergreen storytelling is something we particularly want to celebrate with this award.
‘Significantly, Shirley continues to innovate and create, providing young children with a love of reading that we know will give them a great start in life. We often hear about ‘national treasures’, but Shirley Hughes is up there with the best.’
Commenting on her award Shirley Hughes said, ’Being chosen for the Booktrust Lifetime Achievement Award is a tremendous honour which I appreciate more than I can say. I have derived so much fulfilment from my long career, first as an illustrator of other artists’ stories and then creating my own. Best of all has been perennially encountering very young children who are learning to look with such rapt pleasure and follow a story visually long before they are able to read.’
