Ahlberg pens publisher's 'dream book'

Thames & Hudson is publishing a children’s book by bestselling author Allan Ahlberg and illustrator Bruce Ingman about a picture book “going wrong”.

My Worst Book Ever will be published on 22nd February, as an illustrated hardback with an r.r.p. of £10.95, a decade after Ahlberg and Ingman first collaborated.

World rights were acquired by Roger Thorp, editorial director for children’s and arts at Thames & Hudson directly from Ahlberg from Luke Ingram at the Wylie Agency, which represents Ingman.

It explores a picture book “going wrong”, according to the blurb, as Ahlberg “has a good idea for book about a crocodile but every time he sits down to write he’s interrupted”. According to the blub, the publishers get over-excited too as they want a dinosaur and experiment with all kinds of different fonts.

Thorp described the title as "every publisher’s dream – a book about books by two of the best bookmakers in the business".

He said: "Allan and Bruce have worked on a number of successful books together but an ambition they and I shared was to create a book that tells the story of how a book is made, and, inevitably, how it can all go horribly wrong. The result is a joy – a book of humour and insight told with a combination of meticulous attention to detail and the imaginative flair for which both author and illustrator are justly renowned."

Born in 1938, Ahlberg is the author of more than a hundred books for children. My Worst Book Ever will be published 40 years after Each Peach, Pear Plum (Puffin), written by Ahlberg and his late wife Janet. The pair also created The Jolly Postman (Puffin) and the pair have sold 3 million books altogether amassing £18.9m, according to Nielsen BookScan.