We're not scared... about working together again!

Three decades after their iconic children's book encouraged youngsters to keep going, no matter what, Bear Hunt creators Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury reflect on the joys of collaborating again, the collapse in reading... and why some parents want to 'strangle' them

- By Simon Hemelryk

THIRTY-SIX years ago, author Michael Rosen and illustrator Helen Oxenbury created one of Britain’s most iconic children’s books. We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, the offbeat story of a family hunting the titular bear through mud, snow and a dark forest, has sold 14 million copies and been adapted into a Channel 4 animation.

It is beloved by generations of children and their parents. But Michael and Helen never worked together again — until now.

The pair published Oh Dear, Look What I Got, a new children’s picture book, earlier this week. So why has it taken since 1989 for such a successful team to get back together?

Speaking to Michael and Helen, in the latter’s elegant North London townhouse, there isn’t a particular reason — it just never quite happened. “I don’t get to choose who illustrates my books, the publishers do,” says Michael, an enthusiastic, warm 79-year-old. “It’s rather like how producers, not scriptwriters, decide who stars in their movie. It’s who they think will work best.

“I might sometimes get three or four options and I'll say I like one of them, but the publisher won’t necessarily take any notice. You sort of have to trust them!”

Michael has gone on to work with many other notable illustrators, including Quentin Blake, famous for the Roald Dahl books, and Tony Ross, who illustrated David Walliams’s children’s stories.

While Helen has collaborated with writers such as Martin Waddell, with whom she created Farmer Duck, and her late husband, the author and illustrator John Burningham, who provided the artwork for Ian Fleming’s children’s novel Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Their work includes There’s Going to Be a Baby. She also created her classic board books for babies. But they were both delighted when the publishers of Oh Dear, Look What I Got! decided they should finally be reunited.