Allan Ahlberg was born in 1938 and adopted by a working class family in Oldbury, West Midlands, UK. “My parents loved me and they did me a huge service saving me from growing up in a children’s home, but there were a fair few clips round the ear, no books and not much conversation.” He did a variety of jobs before he was persuaded to become a teacher, a career he fell in love with. In 1976 he and his wife, the illustrator Janet Ahlberg published their first book for children. Success followed in 1979 with the publication of Each Peach, Pear, Plum.