After that comes the text – again she will spend several months on this – and then the task of putting everything together to create the finished article. But I always have the toys in front of me, pinned in position while I draw’. ‘Over the years the group of toys which I work with has grown … that small group of toys has continued through but I have added toys like Hoot the Owl and Splash the Seal. Jane works from life using coloured pencils to create the luminous soft effects which have proved so distinctive and popular.

Her books take a long time to produce usually about a year for each title. ‘It’s been very much a family thing all the way through.’ She agrees that this has contributed to the atmosphere of her books Old Bear and his friends are a real family. Then as her children grew, watching their activities and the way they played allowed her to develop her characters and the stories. At home, surrounded by toys, she began to draw them. Though she had teachers including Raymond Briggs and Justin Todd at Brighton, illustrating picture books was not something she considered teaching seemed a more solid career and she didn’t start creating her own books until the arrival of her first child. Luckily her tutor, John Vernon Lord, put her straight, explaining that the highly prescriptive approach was probably not for her – ‘I was very grateful to him. Drawing was also something she had always done, ‘I drew all the time’, Jane says, adding ‘I was not very good at it!’ However she did go to Brighton Art College with the idea of becoming a medical illustrator.

It turns out Old Bear had been a gift from her grandmother and was a constant companion through childhood. The pleasures of the Old Bear books are always enhanced by Jane Hissey’s illustrations with their realistic approach and beguiling colours, and I wanted to know a bit more about their background. Ferelith Hordon spoke to Jane for Books for Keeps. Now to mark the 30th anniversary of the publication of the first Old Bear book, author and illustrator Jane Hissey has created a brand new story, Happy Birthday Old Bear. Old Bear and his friends have long been favourites with readers and countless children have grown up enjoying the gentle nursery based adventures of this band of soft toys.

Jane hissey soft toys