Shirley Hughes remembered: ‘Everything she shone her attention on turned to gold’

Michael Morpurgo: ‘Shirley must have begun the reading lives of so many millions’

British children’s author of War Horse, Why the Whales Came and Private Peaceful

We have all grown up with the stories and drawings of Shirley Hughes deep inside us. We’ve enjoyed them for ourselves, with our children, with our grandchildren. Shirley must have begun the reading lives of so many millions. That moment when you’ve read a book like Alfie and sit back and think that was wonderful, tell me another. Thank you Shirley from all of us, the children of today and children of yesterday.

Julia Donaldson: ‘Hers were the first picture books I discovered as a young mother’

British children’s author of The Gruffalo and Room on the Broom

I have so many precious memories of reading Shirley Hughes’s books with my children. Hers were the first picture books I discovered as a young mother and all of us loved the way her work captured children, adults and animals in everyday life. Doggerwas a special favourite, and my son named his own toy dog Dogger. When I met Shirley, she told me she felt it was so important that children learned the skill of observation through looking at illustrations in picture books, and she said that she spent a lot of time observing children before putting brush to paper – for instance looking at the way a left-out child stood on one foot leaning against the wall in a playground. She bought so much pleasure to so many people and her rare talent and warmth will be hugely missed.

Kiran Millwood Hargrave: ‘She was a celebrator of the small moments that make life magic’

British children’s author of The Girl of Ink and Stars and Julia and the Shark

Everything Shirley Hughes shone her loving attention on turned to gold. She was a celebrator of the small moments that make life magic, and I will always treasure her stories.

Philip Pullman: ‘Inimitable, beloved, immortal’

British children’s author of the His Dark Materials trilogy and president of the Society of Authors

She was incomparable. The children she drew, dumpy little closely-focused beings with important things to do; and the parents, busy, harassed sometimes, their hands full and their clothes a little rumpled, perhaps; and the kitchens and the bedrooms and the parks and the streets, all full of light and life and interesting things to look at, human things, animal things and toy things all just as loved and valuable as one another. And the things she didn’t draw because they were implicit in every expression, every turn of a head, lift of a hand or glint of an eye, the great wide ocean of affection in which every shape she drew breathed, moved and had its life. And her line, the lovely shapes she made out of ink and paint! All the greatest illustrators seemed to put their lines in the right place, the best place, the only place, the place that was theirs and no one else’s; Ardizzone, Tenniel, Shepard, Quentin Blake, Shirley Hughes. Inimitable, beloved, immortal.

Lucy Mangan: ‘I could live in any one of her books without fear’

Journalist and author of Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading

Succour is what comes to mind when I think of Hughes’s books and especially of her rich, warm illustrations into which young readers happily fall every time they meet with them. I would seek them out whenever I was away from home and anxious. How lucky, I thought – not knowing then what a testament to her popularity and talent it was – that every home, waiting room, playgroup and library seemed to have at least one battered copy of Dogger, or one about Alfie or Lucy and Tom. Shirley Hughes was a genius at reproducing the domestic and quotidian and making them attractive. Everything interior she drew contained something elemental, and carried an intimation of what we all mean when we talk of “home”. I could live in any one of her books without fear. I hope she finds herself now in as beautiful and comforting a place as she always provided for me.

Polly Dunbar: ‘Reading Shirley Hughes I am reminded of all that is good in the world’

British author and illustrator, best known for Penguin, the Tilly and Friends series and Hello, Mum

Shirley Hughes was one of the greats. Her books, so full of warmth, joy and magic are entwined in the fabric of my childhood. Many years later, reading her stories to my children I am reminded of all that is good in the world. How lucky we all are that her work will live on and on.

Rebecca Cobb: ‘The more I look at Hughes’s illustrations the more I appreciate all the little details’

British children’s book illustrator, best known for Lunchtime and for her collaboration with Julia Donaldson, The Paper Dolls

Like so many I grew up reading and loving Hughes’s books and her work has been a huge inspiration to me. My favourite will always be Alfie Gets in First because it is such a genius use of the page in a picture book, showing the outside and inside scenes simultaneously. I also love it because I did that exact same thing as a child and accidentally shut my mum out of our flat! Her beautifully observed characters and stories perfectly capture the experience of being a child. The more I look at her illustrations, the more I appreciate all the little details – the way a favourite toy is clutched in little chubby fingers, the way a child stands all fidgety and full of energy, and the way that everyone looks slightly ruffled and crumpled and you feel like you know them because they are so real. I am very grateful for all the wonderful books that she leaves behind for so many to enjoy. She will be sadly missed.

• Shirley Hughes

• Children and teenagers
• Philip Pullman
• Michael Morpurgo
• Illustration
• Picture books
• features