Shirley Hughes was an English author and illustrator who had interests in looking at paintings and dressmaking.

She died peacefully at her home after a short illness at the age of 94.

She is the daughter of Liverpool store owner Thomas James Hughes and his wife Kathleen (née Dowling), she grew up in West Kirby on the Wirral.

Shirly described herself as someone who was not good at academics and at the age of 16, she quit schooling at West Kirby Grammar School and later went to study drawing and costume design at the Liverpool School of Art.

At Oxford, Hughes was urged to work in the image book configuration and make lithographic representations.

Her desire was to be a set planner, yet a short encounter as a dogsbody at the Birmingham Rep altered her perspective. In any case, the impact of theater stays in Shirley’s work.

She was a visiting tutor in illustration at Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Arts, Oxford University, Oxford, England and lectured in colleges, universities, and libraries and at conferences on children’s literature.

Shirley Hughes Ex Husband John Vulliamy

John Sebastian Papendiek Vulliamy was Shirley Hughes’s husband.  He was an architect and an etcher. She married her partner in 1952 and remained married until he died in 2007.

The couple were married over five decades and they had two children.

During the weeks following her husband’s death, she was doing well. Weekends, on the other hand, were hell, which is why she began writing books to make the days more pleasant.

Shirley Hughes Cause of Death

According to her family, Shirley Hughes died “peacefully at home after a short illness” on Friday in London.