Writer vows to get children reading

Acclaimed children’s author Allan Ahlberg paid a visit to his Black Country home town to open a conference aimed at getting more youngsters reading.

The writer of classics including Burglar Bill, Peepo!, Each Peach Pear Plum and The Jolly Postman was back in Oldbury where he met many young readers who have been enthralled by his books. The 70-year-old spoke to the Express & Star about his impoverished upbringing which made him determined to get as many young people reading as possible.

“I was adopted and my parents were poor,” he said. “My dad was a labourer, my mum was a cleaner.

“There weren’t many books in the house so I read comics and I also read at school.

“But over the years I discovered that I liked books and I liked writing them.”

He attended three primary schools, The Good Shepherd, Tabernacle Street and Rood End Primary School, before going on to Oldbury Grammar School.

Mr Ahlberg, who comes back to Oldbury three or four times a year and has cousins in Dudley, lived in Birchfield Lane, Stone Street and Cemetery Road before leaving the Black Country aged 18.

Although he discovered reading at an early age, he worked as a postman, plumber’s mate and even a grave digger, before writing his first book in his 30s.

He met his wife Janet, who illustrated many of their books before she passed away in 1994, while training to be a teacher in Sunderland. Several years later they started work on their first book.

Mr Ahlberg, a Baggies fan, has most recently released Collected Poems, a collection of his favourite children’s poetry.

The conference he spoke at was organised by literacy consultant and writer Gill Matthews.