mammybearsbooks Blog Brambley_Hedge-Jill_Barklem-II 20190613

Mammy Bears Books 13 June 2019 · And yet another favourite illustrator...Jill Barklem (1951-2017) Jill Barklem is famous for her "Brambly Hedge" stories, being the exploits of a family of mice that live in a hedgerow in the countryside. Jill Barklem started her career as an illustrator of children's bibles, but was encouraged by her husband to work on the stories she had created whilst commuting the long distance to her art school, whilst studying. Barklem became a full-time illustrator, working on the expanding series of books about the mice of Brambly Hedge and spent five years on research before she started to write her first stories...perhaps this is why the stories remain so fresh and the depiction of hedgerow life so realistic. The mice of Brambly Hedge made their first appearance in 1980 when the Four Seasonal stories were published. Ever since that time, readers have loved exploring her wonderful miniature world. Her work remains fresh and vital, capturing, as it does, a bye-gone era.