Alfie and the Birthday Surprise

Author and illustrator Shirley Hughes was born near Liverpool, U. K. on July 16, 1927. She studied drawing and costume design at Liverpool School of Art and the Ruskin School of Drawing in Oxford. At first, she was an illustrator of other author's works, but in 1960 she published Lucy and Tom's Day, which was the first book she wrote and illustrated. Since then, she has written over 50 books and has illustrated 200 children's books. In 2015, she wrote a young adult novel entitled, Hero on a Bicycle. She won the Kate Greenaway Medal for Dogger in 1977, the Eleanor Farjeon Award for distinguished services to children's literature in 1984, and the OBE for services to children's literature in 1998. Hughes was given two Honorary Degrees, one from the University of Liverpool in 2004, and the other from the University of Chester in 2012. In 2017, she was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). Shirley Hughes died at her home in London on February 25, 2022. She was 94.

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