The Ahlbergs belong with A. A. Milne and Lewis Caroll, to the greatest tradition of British children's books, having the kind of genius that can dominate an era' - Sunday Times Janet Hall was born in 1944 and spent her childhood years in Leicester. She went to Sunderland to train to be a teacher. Allan Ahlberg had enrolled on the same course. Allan Ahlberg was born in Croydon in 1938, but grew up in Oldbury, near Birmingham. From the age of twelve, his dream was to be a writer. Before he fulfilled his ambition, he tried his hand at a variety of other jobs including postman, grave digger, plumber's mate and teacher. The "Jolly Christmas Postman" is a simple picture storybook, a timeless gem that just gets it right. Beautifully illustrated with letters and parcels for the children to open and touch. It tells the tale of a postman delivering his Christmas post, along the way he encounters classic children’s story characters such as “Mr. Wolf” and “Mr. H Dumpty”. Janet and Allan Ahlberg fashioned their books from familiar ingredients: from folk and nursery tales; from the surrounding and activities of family life; from their own memories. Both Janet and Allan retained strong memories of growing up during the 1940's and 1950's. The affectionate references to that era in books like Peepo! and The Bear Nobody Wanted were not simply drawn from memory but meticulously researched. Janet Ahlberg was a collector of artefacts, from paintings to teapots to mechanical toys. As children, both Janet and Allan loved reading comics. Janet's favourite books included Rupert Bear, Winnie the Pooh and The Famous Five. Books were more of a rarity in Allan's childhood, although he does remember one very special story, The Bear Nobody Wanted!

That’s where this book comes in, that’s how this book makes me feel. Happy and joyful, it makes me think of my childhood and how special it was. I continue to this day to read this to myself every Christmas and one day I will read it to my children, hopefully one Christmas to theirs too.