His great-uncle Herbert introduced him to the literary works of Charles Dickens and William Shakespeare, and let him use the microscope he kept in his front room.
[3] He attended Colne Grammar School, and later lived in Kendal, Westmorland, where the area's small towns and villages provided inspiration for his most famous character, Postman Pat.
[6] Although Cunliffe wanted to become a writer when he left school, he was unsure how to go about this and from 1951 to 1973 was employed mainly as a librarian, including two years spent working for the British Council in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
[8][13] In 1979, whilst teaching in Kendal, he applied unsuccessfully for a director's job on the BBC TV programme Play School, but at lunch following the interview was asked if he could write a 13-part series for children set in the countryside.
[15] Following the success of Postman Pat, Cunliffe became something of a local celebrity, and had a room dedicated to him at Kendal's Museum of Lakeland Life.
He intended to create a series closer to what he wanted overall, after being disappointed by some of the merchandising and tie-in books for Postman Pat, over which he had little control.