Allan Ahlberg

Allan Ahlberg (1938–2025) was a British children’s author who wrote more than 100–150 books, many of them in collaboration with his wife, the illustrator Janet Ahlberg. Born in Croydon, England, in 1938 and adopted as a baby, he was raised in the West Midlands/Black Country area and worked as a postman, gravedigger, plumber, and teacher before becoming a full-time writer. Ahlberg studied at Sunderland’s teacher training college (later the University of Sunderland) in the 1960s and went on to become one of the UK’s most acclaimed writers for children.

Ahlberg’s best-known works include Each Peach Pear Plum, Peepo!, The Jolly Postman series, Funnybones, Burglar Bill, Cops and Robbers, and The Baby’s Catalogue, many of which have become modern classics of picture-book storytelling. Each Peach Pear Plum, illustrated by Janet Ahlberg, is a rhyming “I spy” picture book that remains one of his most beloved titles and is widely available in board book format for babies and toddlers.