Married artists win BookTrust Lifetime Achievement Award

John Burningham has written and illustrated over thirty picture books, most notably illustrating Chitty Chitty Bang Bang by Ian Fleming, which became a household name after the 1968 film adaptation starring Dick Van Dyke.

John studied illustration and graphic design at the Central School of Art, graduating with distinction in 1959. Many illustration commissions followed including iconic posters for London Transport, before his first children’s book Borka: The Adventures of a Goose with No Feathers was published in 1963 and heralded the beginning of an extraordinary career.

His picture books have been translated and distributed all over the world, and feature much-loved classics like Mr Gumpy’s Outing which won his second Kate Greenaway Medal (the first for Borka), Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne and The Shopping Basket.

Granpa, which published in 1984, won the New York Times Best Illustrated Award and Kurt Maschler Award and was later made into an animated film. John has also published several adult books and in 2010 he collaborated with Helen Oxenbury on There’s Going to be a Baby.

In 2012 he was nominated for a Hans Christian Andersen Award for Illustration.

Helen Oxenbury is an award-winning illustrator in her own right, most notably for her 1999 illustrated edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland for which she won her second Kate Greenaway Medal, and which was later named as one of the top ten winning works in the prize's history.

Helen was born in Ipswich and attended the Ipswich School of Art before moving to London to study at the Central School of Art and Design. Her career has included design work in theatre, film and television. She started illustrating children’s books in 1964 and has published books across age groups, from classic board books for babies to collections of nursery rhymes for all ages.

Amongst other awards, in 1989, 1991 and 1994 she won three Nestlé Smarties Book Prizes: for We're Going on a Bear Hunt as told by Michael Rosen, Farmer Duck by Martin Waddell and So Much by Trish Cooke, respectively. Farmer Duck also claimed the title of Illustrated Children's Book of the Year at the 1991 British Book Awards.

In 2010 Oxenbury collaborated with husband John Burningham on There’s Going to be a Baby. Her most recent publication, The Giant Jumperee,was a collaboration with former Children’s Laureate Julia Donaldson, best known as the writer of The Gruffalo.

The previous image and the one following are from Granpa, written and illustrated by John Burningham. It begins portraying the warm relationship between a girl and her grandfather, who entertains her with fantastic tales of his youth. However, as time goes on, Granpa becomes frailer until eventually, as seen in the book's haunting final spread below, the girl has to come to terms with his death.