Graham Oakley, who has died age 93, was an illustrator and writer known almost entirely for one series of picture books: The Church Mice, published over a period of nearly 30 years from 1972. Beautifully illustrated, written and designed, they are a series of warm-hearted and witty books which demonstrate perfectly that a successful picture book needs to be subtle and many layered, on the assumption that it may be read and re-read many times over and that its audience will be intergenerational.
Art-school trained and with a background in set design, latterly as a production designer at the BBC, Oakley was as interested in the settings of his stories as the characters and their actions. Drawing on the Victorian illustrative painters as well as, in particular, the work of the American artist Norman Rockwell, Oakley’s painterly illustrations for The Church Mouse (1972) appealed immediately, both for their colourful scene-setting and their wonderful observations conveyed in line illustrations. Into these Oakley crammed a mass of detailed action commented on in witty asides presented as part of the picture.
