Graham Oakley

I can't remember how or when I was first exposed to Graham Oakley's Church Mouse books. It must have been a random used book buy here at Exodus and it was certainly before my kids could enjoy them, but I found the illustrations intriguing enough to look at more closely. So glad I took the time!

The first one I ever saw was The Church Mice at Bay. It's a fantastic story about the mice dealing with a young curate who comes to substitute while the vicar is on vacation; the mice don't appreciate the changes he's making—and things escalate from there! I think this one's a tad funnier than most of them (also a bit more scandalous!), but perhaps I am biased because it was my first.

The hilarious adventures of Arthur (the original Church Mouse), Humphrey (the school mouse), Samson (the meek church cat) and the rest are mostly contained in the environs of Wortlethorpe. They foil robbers and kidnappers; escape owls, rats, and cats, bumbling exterminators and unethical scientists. They travel the "world" in The Church Mice Spread their Wings, to the "moon" in The Church Mice & the Moon, and take an actual voyage in The Church Cat Abroad. And I haven't even read them all!

The pictures are packed with detail and nuance and tell the stories just as much as the text (if not more). I'm not particularly good at spotting them, but there are tons of jokes and double meanings hidden in the illustrations, so they reward rereading and taking the time to pore over.

Graham Oakley (born in Shrewsbury, Shropshire August 27, 1929) is an English writer and illustrator best known for children's books. Late in life, he lived in Lyme Regis and later Poundbury, Dorset and at 92 (as of 2021) was still going, just "mostly retired."

Oakley attended the Warrington Art School in 1950. For much of his early career, he worked in set design and as a scenic artist. This included work for London repertory theatre companies, the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, and at the BBC, where he was involved with films How Green Was My Valley, Nicholas Nickleby, Treasure Island, and Softly, Softly. He credits much of this work for giving him the focus on scenery and eye for detail that has helped make his picture books so fascinating.

Oakley wrote the twelve Church Mice books from 1970 to 2000. Apparently, he originally planned Wortlethorpe to be the setting for a very different series of children's books:

"I was going to open with a high view on top of the town and a series of stories about each building, starting with the church and moving on to the library and the town hall, but the first book, The Church Mouse was so successful that I never got to the library."

The Church Mice aren't his only books: Oakley also published the three-book Foxbury Force series from 1994 to 1998. But in interviews, he cites four of his other books as particularly special to him:

“None of them are in print now, but I think some are the best things I ever did. There was one called Henry’s Quest, which still gets a certain amount of interest. Another was called Hetty and Harriet, about two chickens. Then I did one called Magical Changes which had split pages that you reshuffled to make up to about 500 different pictures. That one is still in print in France [titled 512]. And there’s another called Once Upon A Time: A Prince’s Fantastic Journey, which I think included some of the best artwork I’ve done.”

No one can last forever, unfortunately, and after a fall Graham Oakley passed away on December 19, 2022.