Bear's Birthday

In the early 1960s, Allan studied teacher training in Sunderland, where he also met Janet, his future wife. He had tackled a wide variety of jobs, ranging from postman to plumber’s mate before working as a primary teacher for ten years. Janet, however, discovering that she ‘couldn’t do the policing job’, went on to study graphic design, which led her to her vocation as an illustrator.

Colin McNaughton was born in Wallsend-upon-Tyne in Northumberland, in 1951. He took a foundation course in Art in Newcastle before moving to London in 1970 to study graphic design at the Central School of Art. Subsequently, Colin took an MA in illustration at the Royal College of Art.