- Her books have become a cult collectable among Gen Z with more than 7.8 million views of the search term Shirley Barber on TikTok.
- Her books were published in 18 languages.
- Shirley Barber was an English children's author and illustrator.
- Her books were mainly set in picturesque woods.
- She was a longtime resident in Australia having emigrated there in 1965 and worked for a time for Oxford University Press in Melbourne, Victoria.
- Barber's books featured fairies and animals.
- From Shirley's children's books sprung a sea of spin-off products: colouring books, jigsaw books, jigsaws, dinnerware, clothing, stickers, manchester, and other merchandise, all featuring fairies, bunnies, mermaids, and other folk living in busy fantasy worlds.
- Her first book, Martha B. Rabbit: the Fairies' Cook was originally published by Memory Press (an imprint of The Five Mile Press) in the late 1980s. Shirley had written the book many years earlier, in her childhood, and even created a little dummy book, or prototype, complete with a red ribbon tie. That little hand-made book is still in her family's possession today.
- Shirley wrote many picture books and fairy-themed colouring books, calendars and diaries, which have sold over 10 million copies a.
- She had no formal art school training, but learnt designing at a textile and wallpaper studio in London.
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