With his wife, Christine, Hargreaves had four children: Adam, Giles, and twins Sophie and Amelia. Although Hargreaves wrote many other children's stories, including the Timbuctoo series of twenty-five books, John Mouse, and the Roundy and Squary books, he is best known for his 46 Mr. It, too, was made into a television series in 1983, which was narrated by John Alderton, who, with Pauline Collins, voiced the Men and Misses, respectively. In 1981, the Little Miss series of books began to appear. He initially had difficulty finding a publisher but, once he did, the books became an instant success, selling over one million copies within three years and spawning a BBC animated television series, narrated and voiced by Arthur Lowe.īy 1976, Hargreaves had quit his day job. But his original ambition was to be a cartoonist and, in 1971, while he was working as the creative director at a London firm, he wrote the first Mr. He spent a year working in his father's laundry and dry-cleaning business before starting out in advertising. Hargreaves was born in a private hospital at 201 Bath Road, Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire, England, to Alfred Reginald and Ethel Mary Hargreaves, and grew up in High Lees, 703 Halifax Road, also in Cleckheaton, outside of which there now is a commemorative plaque. He is Britain's third best-selling author, having sold more than 100 million books. Men and Little Miss series, intended for very young readers. Roger once said, 'I feel very happy to think that when the Mr Men and Little Misses are 100 years old, their readers will always be five.Charles Roger Hargreaves was an English author and illustrator of children's books, notably the Mr. Sadly Roger passed away in 1988, but his son Adam took over the series, introducing new characters and exciting new adventures. Mr Silly was his favourite Mr Men story and, according to his family, encapsulates his humour most closely. What Roger really wanted was to make children laugh. The books were an instant hit and Roger went on to create many more Mr Men and Little Miss characters. He wondered if he could make a living writing and illustrating children's books so he wrote the first Mr Men titles: Mr Tickle, Mr Greedy, Mr Happy, Mr Nosey, Mr Sneeze and Mr Bump. Roger was a successful copywriter but he wanted to do something that would enable him to work from home and spend more time with his four children. The idea that a tickle could be a character in its own right sparked an idea in Roger's mind. In response, Roger drew a small orange man with extraordinarily long arms that could reach anywhere and tickle anyone. Roger Hargreaves' son Adam asked him what a tickle looked like.

Little miss chatterbox