And one of the greatest children’s illustrators himself, Maurice Sendak, declares the books…’the saltiest and most satisfying picture books created…’.

In this capacity he first encountered the work of Samuel Palmer and of Blake, and Blake, particularly, was to have a life-long influence on his work. Other famous commissions included illustrations for Clive King's Stig of the Dump, whose iconic cover art helped place the book alongside the greats of children's literature to remain on bookshelves ever since. His focus on ordinary people coping in adversity meant mass audiences could understand and relate to his characters. Ardizzone's influence is felt even today amongst modern children's book illustrators almost as strongly as it was during his lifetime.

After a few years the family moved to North London and here, interrupted only by his schooling at Christ’s Hospital, Hastings, Vaughan would live for the rest of his life.

Attached to the Eighth Army, he adapted extremely well to military life and made many friends especially among war correspondents, enabling him access to transport and networks that he required. As Marian Barbour commented, “While Shephard’s early work was bleakly linear, in the late 1930s and 1940s this gave way to the more painterly style, cool and tonal in the Euston Road tradition that derived from Sickert. For the 50th anniversary of the Medal in 2005, the book was named one of the top ten winning titles, selected by a panel to compose the ballot for public election of an all-time favourite. In 1936 he inaugurated his best-known work, the Tim series of books, featuring the maritime adventures of its eponymous young hero, which he both wrote and illustrated. From 1931-33 Tschudi lived in Paris and studied with the Cubist artist André Lhote, then with the Futurist Gino Severini at the Academie Ronson, and finally under Fernand Léger at the Academie Moderne.By this time, the WAAC had collected almost 400 of his works, a number exceeded by only one other artist, Anthony Gross. The series’ progress was halted, however, with the start of the Second World War and his appointment as an Official War Artist a year later, from whose commission he was eventually released in September 1945. And this, almost certainly, is why the Tim books have just as much appeal for adults as they do for children; and why, too, there is no condescension in either the writing or the illustrations for the books.

He was sent to Macedonia where he spent two years on the front line, facing German and Bulgarian troops, before being invalided out after experiencing bouts of malaria. For illustrating Titus in Trouble, written by James Reeves, Ardizzone was a commended runner-up for the 1959 Greenaway Medal. One of his happiest collaborations was that with Eleanor Farjeon, especially on The Little Bookroom (Oxford, 1955 collection). Ardizzone and other war artists such as Anthony Gross, Edward Bawden, Thomas Hennell, Carel Weight and Leslie Cole gave home audiences a sense of what life was like for British troops overseas.

He was born in London to a Quaker mother from a family of optical instrument makers and Indian missionaries, and an engineer father who, as a keen amateur artist, encouraged his three children to draw and paint from an early age. He attended school from the age of seven for at least two years, and at the age of nine – or such was his claim – he may have been employed as cabin boy to the fishermen working the waters off the Cornish coast. His style was naturalistic but subdued, featuring gentle lines and delicate watercolours, with great attention to particular details. Trevelyan was a teacher of etching at the Royal College of Art where his students included David Hockney, Norman Ackroyd and Ron Kitaj.