Chiswick’s writers have created some of Britain’s greatest works, from Vanity Fair to Look Back in Anger and The Caretaker. Our Writers Trail features 36 acclaimed novelists, poets and dramatists. The Observer wrote: Chiswick may be Britain’s most literary location.
Chiswick also has a remarkable record in creating, publishing and promoting books for children. In March 2026, we told the story here online for the first time, highlighting it in a major Exhibition – Chiswick’s Books for Children: The Untold Story. This was on display in St Michael & All Angels Church from Sunday March 1st to Sunday March 15th 2026, including our Children’s Books Day.
See: Exhibition for World Book Day tells ‘The Untold Story of Chiswick’s Books For Children’ – The Chiswick Calendar
See: Exhibition Reveals How Chiswick Has Shaped Children’s Literature – ChiswickW4.com
See: Harry Potter to Peter Rabbit: Chiswick’s Untold Story – Hounslow Herald
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Since Victorian times, Chiswick has been home to many children’s artists and illustrators. They include the Black Beauty illustrator Cecil Aldin, Balliol Salmon who was Angela Brazil’s favourite artist, Joanne Cole, Lisa Read, Lo Cole, Angela Wallace (featured above) plus Sarah Lenton and others: scroll down for children’s authors, publishers and more.
1. From the Victorians to the 1950s: Cecil Aldin & Balliol Salmon
Balliol Salmon by Robert J. Kirkpatrick – Bear Alley
Balliol Salmon is best-known today for being the illustrator of seven of Angela Brazil’s early girls’ school stories. In his day, however, he was a highly-regarded artist and illustrator particularly noted for his work for The Pall Mall Magazine, The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News and, most importantly, The Graphic. … By 1901 Salmon and his mother, now working as a copyist at the British Museum, had moved to 56 Bloomsbury Street, Bloomsbury. He finally moved out of his mother’s home in around 1903, settling at 48 Grove End Road, Marylebone, whilst working out of a studio at 21 Euston Square and then at 6 Gainsborough Road, Chiswick.
On 1 June 1909, at St. Leonard’s Parish Church in Hastings, he married Dorothy Elizabeth Rodham. They moved to 45 Fairfax Road, Bedford Park, and went on to have two children: Geoffrey Curwen, born on 20 March 1910, and Christopher Russell, born on 19 April 1915, by which time Salmon and his wife had moved to 3 Bath Road, Bedford Park, where they remained until 1926. In 1926, he moved to “Long Cot,” 16 Newton Grove, Acton, and three years later he moved to 9 South Parade, Acton. He apparently continued working, although nothing by him has been traced after 1931. He died from bronchopneumonia on 3 January 1953 at Northiam, apparently without leaving a will. Read more: Balliol Salmon by Robert J. Kirkpatrick – Bear Alley.
2. 1960s to 80s: Puffins by the River: Kaye Webb & Jane Nissen
- The 1960s were a golden age for children’s books, not least thanks to Kaye Webb, Editor of Puffin Books (above) who was born in Chiswick and lived by the river in Montrose Villas, Hammersmith Terrace. “Kaye Webb burst on to the children’s publishing scene in 1961 and changed the industry forever. With no publishing experience whatsoever, Kaye persuaded renowned authors like Roald Dahl and Nina Bawden to publish their hardback bestsellers as pocket-sized paperbacks that children could buy themselves. ” – BBC Radio 4 Great Lives.
- Kaye worked for many years at Puffin with her neighbour Jane Nissen of Chiswick Mall. “The doorbell rang and it was Kaye Webb who’d moved just down the road” Jane said. She joined Puffin and stayed until 1979, when Kaye Webb retired. From 1980-86 she worked at Methuen Children’s Books, where she bought Michael Morpurgo’s War Horse and made it a best-seller. She returned to Penguin as editorial director of Hamish Hamilton’s children’s list. In 1998, made to retire from Penguin, she set up Jane Nissen Books to republish out-of-print children’s classics, including several ofl Noel Streatfeild’s ‘shoes’ series. She won the Eleanor Farjeon Award, as had Kaye Webb.
- Jane worked closely at Penguin with Sally Floyer, who also lives in Chiswick. Sally became managing director of Frederick Warne, the company that first published the works of Beatrix Potter, which became a division of Penguin in 1983. She was also managing director of the Ladybird books series. For 20 years she managed some of the world’s most enduring children’s properties, including Peter Rabbit, licensing them for the screen as well as publishing. “With some trepidation Sally invited the Beatrix Potter Society members to an early screening and was very relieved that they liked it very much” – License Global Magazine
- Other influential publishing figures who have lived in Chiswick include Dotti Irving, whose first job was working at Puffin with Kaye Webb (and wearing the Puffin costume at the Puffin Exhibition!). Dotti was head of communications for Penguin before setting up the PR company Colman Getty, where she was closely involved with the Booker Prize and Samuel Johnson Prize and worked with JK Rowling, William Boyd and many others. She is now an agent.
- Dotti brought Barry Cunningham into Penguin and Puffin in 1977, after he had been working in the bookshop Turn’em Pages in Turnham Green Terrace, Chiswick W4. As marketing director for Puffin, he travelled around the world with Roald Dahl. He later joined Bloomsbury and is best known for signing JK Rowling and publishing Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in 1997.
See a fuller list of influential Chiswick publishers – ‘Chiswick’s Golden Thread of Books for Children’
The Chiswick Book Festival celebrated their inspiring work at a special Children’s Books Day on Saturday March 7th 2026 in St Michael & All Angels Church W4, marking World Book Day and International Women’s Day, as part of the National Year of Reading.
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3. 1970s & 80s: Chiswick’s performers on screen and stage: Richard Briers, Vicky Ireland, Jonathan Cohen and more
Chiswick has been home to many children’s TV presenters, producers, actors and musicians who performed and promoted children’s books, as well as adapters for the stage. They include Vicky Ireland (Words & Pictures, Polka Theatre), Floella Benjamin (Play School), Janet Ellis (Blue Peter), Richard Briers (Roobard & Custard, Noddy, Watershed Down, Wind in the Willows) and Jonathan Cohen (Play School, Play Away, Jackanory). Its producers include BBC Children’s Michael Cole (Bod, Play School), “an incredible star of Children’s TV”.
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Vicky Ireland
From 1982 to 1989, Vicky Ireland presented Words & Pictures on BBC TV, set in a children’s library. A story was read each week, with phrases to read from the screen and a ‘magic pencil’ showing how to draw each letter. From 1988 to 2002, Vicky was Artistic Director, the Polka Theatre for children; she later dramatised several of Jacqueline Wilson’s books for the stage. In 1998 she founded the campaign group Action for Children’s Arts; in 2025, it created the Vicky Ireland Award to mark her 80th birthday.
Jonathan Cohen
Jonathan Cohen is a British pianist, composer and musical director. He is particularly well known for his work on BBC children’s programmes from the 1960s to the 1990s, including Play School, Play Away, Rentaghost and Jackanory. He had joined Play School in 1967 after graduating from the Royal Academy of Music. He would front the Play Away Band and present some of the musical items: one, much loved by children, would be to watch K’Too, the Play School cockatoo dance along to Cohen’s playing. He became heavily involved with the BBC Schools service, co-presenting Music Time, a popular long-running series aimed at primary school children, with Helen Spiers; first aired in 1970, and presented by Cohen from 1983, it was heavily focused on teaching singing and instrumentation to children.
Other BBC Schools series were aimed at older Junior children, notably the award-winning series The Music Arcade (1979-1986) and
Into Music, from 1988 and 1989.
4. 1960s to 1990s: The Coles of South Parade – from Bod to Scooter Dog
Bod first appeared in book form in the 1960s (wrote Toonhound in 2015), written by Michael Cole and illustrated by Joanne Cole (pictured below). See: Here come The Coles – Toonhound
The stories were read aloud on Playschool, a show which Michael Cole was producing, and on the back of their popularity, the animated series was born and broadcast in 1975 as part of the BBC’s long-running Watch With Mother slot. Bod and his friends were an instant tv hit, benefiting from the BBC’s habit of repeating these shows ad infinitum. New tie-in storybooks were published, and annual editions. Bod seemingly brainwashed a Nursery School generation who still had his bright bald palette fixed in their minds when they arrived at University. Now he’s a ‘cult’ figure, with his TV series available to buy on DVD, new licensed products and a hit book Bod’s Way: The Meaning Of Life.
Sadly Joanne Cole died in 1985, and Michael in 2001. The Bod estate is now in the capable hands of their siblings Lo, Alison, Sam and Kate. Lo and Alison took on the difficult task of finishing Bod’s Way after their father’s death.
They now have plans to bring Bod, Barley Mow, and – maybe – even Alberto And His Amazing Animal Band back to our screens in the future. Proof indeed, of the simple brilliance of the series. Or have we all been brainwashed into thinking that….?
See: The Coles of South Parade – from Bod to Scooter Dog
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5. 2000s to 2026: Chiswick’s illustrators & authors of children’s books
Chiswick has been home to many children’s authors and dramatists. They include Floella Benjamin, Michael Cole, Donald Pleasance, Diana Pullein-Thompson, Rob Sprackling, Vicky Ireland, Sarah Lenton, Margaret Stonborough, Polly Devlin and others listed in the children’s section of the Chiswick Timeline of Writers & Books (currently being updated).
The Coles of South Parade – from Bod to Scooter Dog