Judith Kerr, author of The Tiger Who Came to Tea, dies at age of 95

Judith Kerr, the illustrator who gave the world The Tiger Who Came to Tea has died at the age of 95.

Born in Berlin in 1923, Kerr and her family escaped Germany when Judith was 10, taking to Switzerland, then France, and finally the UK.

The former artist for hire and BBC screenwriter had long harboured dreams of authoring (and illustrating) books for children but it wasn’t until her own children were starting to read that she sat down and turned her dream into a reality.

Miraculously, The Tiger Who Came to Tea — the million-selling classic, beloved by parents and children across the world — was her debut work. The award-winning author, honoured just last week at the British Book Awards where she was bestowed the illustrator of the year title — went on to publish another 30 books for children.

2012 saw the cherished author and illustrator being presented with an OBE for her services to Holocaust education and children’s literature.

The Guardian reports that fans of Kerr’s work can access her archives at Newcastle’s Seven Stories centre, a cultural hub which specialises in promoting and celebrating worked aimed at children.