Charles Roger Hargreaves (9 May 1935 – 11 September 1988) was an
EnglishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
authorAn author is defined both as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created...
and
illustratorAn illustrator is a graphic artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text...
of children's books, notably the
Mr. MenMr. Men is a series of 48 children's books by Roger Hargreaves started in 1971. Little Miss was an accompanying series of 42 books by the same author with female characters that started in 1981. After Hargreaves' death in 1988, his son, Adam Hargreaves, began writing and illustrating new stories...
and Little Miss series, intended for very young readers. The books' simple and silly stories, with bright-coloured, boldly drawn illustrations, have been part of popular culture for over 25 years, with sales over 100 million worldwide in 15 languages.
Hargreaves was born in a private hospital at 201 Bath Road,
CleckheatonCleckheaton is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England, situated south of Bradford, east of Brighouse, west of Batley and south-west of Leeds...
, West Yorkshire,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, to Alfred Reginald and Ethel Mary Hargreaves, and grew up in High Lees, 703 Halifax Road, also in Cleckheaton, outside of which there now is a commemorative plaque.
Charles Roger Hargreaves (9 May 1935 – 11 September 1988) was an
EnglishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
authorAn author is defined both as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created...
and
illustratorAn illustrator is a graphic artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text...
of children's books, notably the
Mr. MenMr. Men is a series of 48 children's books by Roger Hargreaves started in 1971. Little Miss was an accompanying series of 42 books by the same author with female characters that started in 1981. After Hargreaves' death in 1988, his son, Adam Hargreaves, began writing and illustrating new stories...
and Little Miss series, intended for very young readers. The books' simple and silly stories, with bright-coloured, boldly drawn illustrations, have been part of popular culture for over 25 years, with sales over 100 million worldwide in 15 languages.
Hargreaves was born in a private hospital at 201 Bath Road,
CleckheatonCleckheaton is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England, situated south of Bradford, east of Brighouse, west of Batley and south-west of Leeds...
, West Yorkshire,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, to Alfred Reginald and Ethel Mary Hargreaves, and grew up in High Lees, 703 Halifax Road, also in Cleckheaton, outside of which there now is a commemorative plaque. He spent a year working in his father's laundry and dry-cleaning business before starting out in advertising. But his original ambition was to be a cartoonist; and, in 1971, while he was working as the creative director at a London firm, he wrote the first Mr. Men book,
Mr. Tickle. He initially had difficulty finding a publisher; but, once he did, the books became an instant success, selling over one million copies within three years. In 1975 it spawned a
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation, usually referred to by its abbreviation as the "BBC", is the longest established and largest broadcaster in the world...
animated television series, narrated and voiced by
Arthur LoweArthur Lowe was a BAFTA Award winning English actor. He was best known for playing Captain George Mainwaring in the popular British sitcom Dad's Army from 1968 until 1977.-Early life:...
.
By 1976, Hargreaves had quit his day job. In 1981, the Little Miss series of books began to appear. It, too, was made into a television series in 1983, which was narrated by
John AldertonJohn Alderton is an English actor who is best known for his roles in Upstairs, Downstairs, Thomas & Sarah and Please Sir!. Alderton has often starred alongside his wife, Pauline Collins.-Early life:...
, who, with
Pauline CollinsPauline Collins, OBE is an English actress who is known for playing Sarah in Upstairs, Downstairs and for playing the title role in Shirley Valentine.-Early life and career:...
, voiced the Men and Misses, respectively. Although Hargreaves wrote many other children's stories, including the
TimbuctooTimbuctoo is a series of 25 children's books, written and illustrated by Roger Hargreaves, better known for his Mr. Men series. It was published from 1978-1979. The books tell the stories of a group of animals, each of whom is named after the sound that they make...
series of twenty-five books, John Mouse, and the Roundy and Squary books, he is best known for his 46 Mr. Men books and 33 Little Miss books.
With his wife, Christine, Hargreaves had four children:
AdamAdam Hargreaves is an English author and illustrator. The son of Roger Hargreaves, he continues his father's popular Mr. Men series of children's books. Hargreaves also served as inspiration for the series. When at the age of six he asked his father "What does a tickle look like?", Roger used...
, Giles, and twins Sophie and Amelia. The first of the Mr. Men characters is reported to have been created when Adam asked his father what a tickle looked like: Hargreaves drew a figure with a round orange body and long, rubbery arms, which became Mr. Tickle.
After Hargreaves died of a sudden
strokeA stroke is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by thrombosis or embolism or due to a hemorrhage...
in 1988, Adam continued writing and drawing the Mr. Men and Little Miss characters in new stories. However, in April 2004, Christine sold the rights to the Mr. Men characters to the UK entertainment group
ChorionChorion Limited is an entertainment company based in the United Kingdom. It possesses the rights to the Mr. Men and Little Miss characters and the literary works of Enid Blyton, Raymond Chandler, Agatha Christie, and Georges Simenon...
, for
£The pound sterling , often simply called the pound, is the currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and British Antarctic Territory...
28 million.
Series by Roger Hargreaves
- Mr Men
- Little Miss
- Walter Worm
- John Mouse
- Albert Elephant, Count Worm and Grandfather Clock
- I am...
- Timbuctoo
Timbuctoo is a series of 25 children's books, written and illustrated by Roger Hargreaves, better known for his Mr. Men series. It was published from 1978-1979. The books tell the stories of a group of animals, each of whom is named after the sound that they make...
- Hippo Potto and Mouse
- Easy Peasy People (Also by Gray Jolliffe)
- Roundy and Squarey
Appears in other books
Some Mr. Men books have himself drawn in them. He appears in:
- Mr. Small
- Little Miss Star
External links