Patricia Evelyn Hutchins (18 June 1942 – 8 November 2017) was an English illustrator, writer of children's books, Actor and broadcaster. She won the 1974

Kate Greenaway Medal The Kate Greenaway Medal is a British literary award that annually recognises "distinguished illustration in a book for children". It is conferred upon the illustrator by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) ...

from the

Library Association The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, since 2017 branded CILIP: The library and information association (pronounced ), is a professional body for librarians, information specialists and knowledge management, knowle ...

for her book ''The Wind Blew''. On screen, she was best known as 'Loopy-Lobes' the second owner of the "Ragdoll boat" in the long-running children's series

Rosie and Jim ''Rosie and Jim'' (sometimes written as ''Rosie & Jim'') is a British children's television programme which was produced by Ragdoll Productions and aired on ITV from 3 September 1990 to 16 May 2000. The programme was then repeated periodicall ...

. Hutchins was married to illustrator Laurence Hutchins, with whom she had two children. He provided the illustrations for some of her books for early readers.

Biography

Hutchins was born 18 June 1942 in

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

, the sixth of seven children. She won a scholarship to Darlington School of Art in 1958, continued studying illustration at

Leeds College of Art Leeds Arts University is a specialist arts further and higher education institution, based in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, with a main campus opposite the University of Leeds. History It was founded in 1846 as the Leeds Schoo ...

in 1960, and graduated in 1962. She worked for an advertising agency in London to 1966 when she married Laurence Hutchins and moved to New York City for two years. There she worked on writing and illustrating her first

picture book A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images. The images ...

, ''Rosie's Walk'', published in 1968 by

The Bodley Head The Bodley Head is an English publishing house, founded in 1887 and existing as an independent entity until the 1970s. The name was used as an imprint of Random House Children's Books from 1987 to 2008. In April 2008, it was revived as an adul ...

and

Macmillan US Macmillan Inc. is a defunct American book publishing company. Originally established as the American division of the British Macmillan Publishers, the two were later separated and acquired by other companies, with the remnants of the original Am ...

. In the United States, it was a runner-up for the

Boston Globe–Horn Book Award The Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards are a set of American literary awards conferred by ''The Boston Globe'' and ''The Horn Book Magazine'' annually from 1967. One book is recognized in each of four categories: Fiction and Poetry, Nonfiction, and P ...

and the librarians named it a 1968

ALA Notable Book American Library Association Notable lists are announced each year in January by various divisions within the American Library Association (ALA). There are six lists, part of the larger ALA awards structure. * ''ALA Notable Books for Adults'' (est ...

. It remains her work most widely catalogued by

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the OCL ...

participating libraries. ''Titch'' and its sequels were noted for drawing on Hutchins' family life for its depiction of a sibling relationship. Pat Hutchins wrote novels for early readers, some illustrated by husband Laurence, and more than two dozen picture books. Beside winning the 1974 Greenaway Medal, she was a commended runner up for ''One-Eyed Jack'' (1979), another book she wrote and illustrated. In 1995, Hutchins took over from John Cunliffe as the presenter of the British children's television series, ''

''. She played the role of an artistic

narrowboat A narrowboat is a particular type of canal boat, built to fit the narrow locks of the United Kingdom. The UK's canal system provided a nationwide transport network during the Industrial Revolution, but with the advent of the railways, commerc ...

owner and illustrator, referred to as ''Loopy Lobes'' by the two puppet characters because of the large and elaborate earrings she wore during her tenure. Hutchins appeared in 45 episodes over two series and subsequently illustrated books for the franchise. Her role was later taken over by

Neil Brewer Neil Brewer (born July 15, 1954) is a British musician, who is best known for being a member of the 1970s rock band Druid and for presenting the last four series of ''Rosie and Jim''. Brewer played the role of a musical narrowboat owner, who wh ...

in 1997. Between 1997 and 2001 the Titch series of books were made into a stop motion television programme for young children. Three complete series were produced by "Hutchins Film Company" and broadcast on

Children's ITV CITV (short for Children's ITV, also known as the CITV Channel) is a British free-to-air children's television channel owned by ITV plc. It broadcasts content from the CITV archive and acquisitions, every day from 6 am to 9 pm which ...

. According to Hutchins, each episode took two weeks to produce. It was costly, and the process was lengthy, hence why the series ended after its third run. The series later re-aired on the now-defunct

Tiny Living The Children's Channel, also known as TCC, was a British-based pan-European children's television channel in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, which was owned by Living TV Group, Flextech in London, England, UK. It began broadcasting on the o ...

strand from 2001-2005 and then Channel Five's

Milkshake! ''Milkshake!'' (stylised as milkshake!) is a British children's television programming block on Channel 5 and is currently aimed at children aged 3–7. History The block debuted on Channel 5's first full day on air, at 7.30am on 31 March 19 ...

programme thread from 2005–2006. VHS tapes and DVDs were produced during its run. Hutchins died from cancer on 8 November 2017 at the age of 75.

Selected works

Written and illustrated by Pat Hutchins

Hutchins wrote and illustrated about fifty books. * ''Rosie's Walk'' (

, 1968) * ''Tom and Sam'' (Bodley, 1968) * ''The Surprise Party'' (Macmillan, 1969) * ''Clocks and More Clocks'' (

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publ ...

, 1970) * ''Changes, Changes'' (Bodley, 1971) * '' Titch'' (Bodley, 1971) * ''Good Night, Owl!'' (

, 1972; Bodley, 1973) * ''The Wind Blew'' (Bodley, 1974) – Greenaway Medal winner * ''The Silver Christmas Tree'' (Bodley, 1974) * ''

Don't Forget the Bacon! Don, don or DON and variants may refer to: Places *County Donegal, Ireland, Chapman code DON * Don (river), a river in European Russia * Don River (disambiguation), several other rivers with the name *Don, Benin, a town in Benin * Don, Dang, a v ...

'' (Bodley, 1976) * ''Happy Birthday, Sam'' (Bodley, 1978) * ''The Best Train Set Ever'' (Bodley, 1978) * ''One-Eyed Jake'' (Bodley, 1979) – Commended for the Greenaway * ''The Tale of Thomas Mead'' (Bodley, 1980) * ''1 Hunter'' (Bodley, 1982) * ''King Henry's Palace'' (Bodley, 1983) * ''You'll Soon Grow into Them, Titch'' (Bodley, 1983) * ''The Very Worst Monster'' (Bodley, 1985) * ''The Doorbell Rang'' (Julia MacRae Books 1986) * ''Where's the Baby?'' (Bodley, 1988) * ''Which Witch is Which?'' (MacRae, 1989) * ''What Game Shall We Play?'' (MacRae, 1990) * ''Tidy Titch'' (MacRae, 1991) * ''Silly Billy'' (MacRae, 1992) * ''My Best Friend'' (MacRae, 1993) * ''Little Pink Pig'' (MacRae, 1994) * ''Three-Star Billy'' (MacRae, 1994) * ''Titch and Daisy'' (MacRae, 1996) * ''Shrinking Mouse'' (

Greenwillow Books HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Corp ...

, 1997; Bodley, 1998) * ''It's Bedtime, Titch'' (Red Fox, 1998) * ''It's Christmas, Titch'' (Red Fox, 1998) * ''Titch Dresses Up'' (Red Fox, 1998) * ''Titch's Snowy Day'' (Red Fox, 1998) * ''Gardener Titch'' (Red Fox, 1999) * ''Tidy Up Titch'' (Red Fox, 1999) * ''Titch and the Baby'' (Red Fox, 1999) * ''Titch and the Picnic'' (Red Fox, 1999) * ''It's MY Birthday!'' (Greenwillow, 1999; Bodley, 2000) * ''Titch Out and About'' (Red Fox, 2000) * ''Titch's ABC'' (Red Fox, 2000) * ''It's Bathtime, Titch'' (Red Fox, 2000) * ''Sticky Titch'' (Red Fox, 2000) * ''Titch's Windy Day'' (Red Fox, 2000) * ''Ten Red Apples'' (Bodley, 2000) * ''We're Going on a Picnic!'' (Bodley, 2002) * ''There's Only One of Me!'' (

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Cor ...

, 2003) * ''Don't Get Lost!'' (HarperCollins, 2004) * ''Bumpety Bump!'' (HarperCollins, 2006) * ''Barn Dance!'' (HarperCollins, 2007) * ''Where, Oh Where, Is Rosie's Chick?'' ( Hodder, 2015)

Illustrated by Laurence Hutchins

These books were all written by Pat Hutchins, illustrated by Laurence Hutchins, and published by The Bodley Head (except for the last one). * ''The House that Sailed Away'' (Greenwillow, 1975; Bodley, 1976) * ''Follow That Bus!'' (Bodley, 1977) * ''The Mona Lisa Mystery'' (Bodley, 1981) * ''The Curse of the Egyptian Mummy'' (Bodley, 1983) * ''Rats!'' (Bodley, 1989) * ''I'm the King of the Castle'' (

Oberon Books Oberon Books is a London-based independent publisher of drama texts and books on theatre. The company publishes around 100 titles per year, many of them plays by new writers. In addition, the list contains a range of titles on theatre studies, act ...

, 2005)

VHS videos and DVDs

*''My Favourite Nursery Rhymes'' *Rosie and Jim – Gingerbread Man and Other Stories *Rosie and Jim – Duck Gets Lost and Other Stories *Rosie and Jim – Lovely Bananas and Other Stories *Rosie and Jim – Bouncy Castles and Other Stories *Rosie and Jim – The Disappearing Sausages and Other Stories *Rosie and Jim – Soapy Duck and Other Stories *Rosie and Jim – On Safari *Rosie and Jim – Acrobats *My Big Rosie and Jim – Chugging Along On The Old Ragdoll * Rosie and Jim - Splish Splash Splosh (Bumper Special)

Notes

References

External links

"Pat Hutchins in the Classroom, Author Study"
reprint from ''Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Newsletter'', July 1996 {{DEFAULTSORT:Hutchins, Pat 1942 births 2017 deaths Alumni of Leeds Arts University British children's book illustrators English children's writers English illustrators Kate Greenaway Medal winners Writers from Yorkshire Deaths from cancer in England