Jean Adamson, MBE, (née Bailey; 29 February 1928 – 15 December 2024) was a British writer and illustrator of children's books.
[4] From an early age, Adamson had an inquisitive and creative mind: "I spent a lot of time when I was a child, reading children's picture books, peering at the illustrations and puzzling about how they were done.
"At Goldsmiths, carpenters were still putting the windows in, so the students left their desks and sat on the water pipes running along what should have been plaster-boarded walls.
"[5][7] One interviewer described this book as "a BBC Listen With Mother story, and the volume, gaily illustrated by Jean Bailey, also contains some other tales from this popular programme.
[7] The lion was made from a mile of rope, some wire netting, bamboo canes and wood and weighed half a ton and standing nearly 25 ft high.
"[12] Since its creation, the coronation lion has intrigued scholars and conservationists, who have made attempts at finding, restoring and displaying the piece.
It was a huge unit in London's Dover Street run by an ex-UPA American – a breakaway doing new modernistic "contemporary work, stylish amusing cartoons, very unlike Disney".
[4][15] In c. 1954, Hilberman left America for London and seized on an opportunity to lead a new animation unit at Pearl and Dean, to make cartoon commercials and longer sponsored films.
Adamson replied, "they are the people who make up the story and characters for customers to approve before an advertising cartoon film is actually made.
[7] Adamson's experience in the cartoon industry may have played a part in shaping her skills as an author and illustrator: "This time spent inventing characters and stories to be used in films to sell modern goods and chattels informed her acute sense of design, sequence and narrative.
The joy and confidence she gained from drawing stylised washing machines, tvs, and vacuum cleaners nurtured her facility for depicting the home setting in an inviting and measured way.
"[8] In the winter of 1960, two twins with black hair, rosy cheeks and zig-zag fringes began appearing in newspaper adverts and on bookshelves across the UK.
Their background at Goldsmiths as students of illustration and Gareth's experience as a writer, when incapacitated through illness as a youth, equipped them admirably to embark on the challenge before them.
"[21] Gareth then drafted text and Jean illustrated miniature roughs for the first three Topsy and Tim stories and presented them to Blackie.
[21] "Their objective became clear: to combine a sentence or two of text with an illustration of a small boy and girl learning from looking and doing in a world waiting to be explored.
"[30] The stories were thoroughly researched, in order to accurately reflect real life: "they made sure that the depictions of these first experiences were well-researched so that parents and children could trust them.
Topsy and Tim had: approximately 150 titles to date, with 4 CD ROMs, a 60 minute video and activity playbooks extending the stories into new directions.
[16] "After 40 years, Adamson was still designing and writing new Topsy and Tim books, but she had begun to collaborate with another artist, who would colour in her images.
One observer commented, "It is refreshing and enlightening to witness her sustained enthusiasm in this role and interesting to learn of her recent sharing of this responsibility with the freelance illustrator Nancy Hellen.
The last 38 titles, many brand new, reflect this collaboration which was engineered to ensure the continued appeal of Topsy and Tim and to prevent them from becoming old fashioned.
Adamson continued to art direct the design and layout, also supervised the styling of the whole book whilst Hellen finally created the artwork using bright inks and line to clothe the characters in appropriate modern fashions and locate them in a contemporary setting.
The feel is bright and cheerful and whilst Adamson's gouaches are dried-up, in the loft – she admitted that it was great fun waiting to see what would become of the characters.
The Adamsons occasionally collaborated on books, as a writer-illustrator duo, for example, in Neighbours in the Park (1962), The Ahmed Story (1966), Hop Like Me (1972).
"[55] Adamson received an MBE in the 2000 New Year Honours for her services to children's literature and in 2016,[2] she was made Honorary Fellow of Goldsmiths College.