"The children's author and illustrator Val Biro, who has died aged 92, was best known as the creator of Gumdrop, an aged vintage car with very human characteristics and a remarkable capacity for adventures. Drawing on his passion for the 1926 Austin 12-4 that he owned, Biro wrote and illustrated Gumdrop: The Adventures of a Vintage Car (1966). His vigorous illustrations and eventful text begin with Gumdrop under threat after he has been stolen and crashed by burglars and had smaller parts removed by shady characters. These attacks on the elderly car leave Gumdrop in sad decline and ready for little but the scrapheap. The arrival of Mr Oldcastle, a vintage car fanatic clearly modelled on Biro himself, leads to the rescue and rebuilding of Gumdrop just in time for him to win a vintage car rally. The final spread shows a cross-section of a 1926 Austin – just in case any eager readers want to try their own car maintenance. The idea for the book had been proposed to Biro by a publisher who heard him talking animatedly about his newly acquired vintage car. The notion was a good one; the car was quickly a star and more than 35 picture books followed, including Gumdrop Forever (1988), Gumdrop and the Martians (1998) and Gumdrop's School Adventure (2001). For Biro, the car was an endless source of inspiration and he effortlessly created new titles at the rate of more than one a year, adding new adventures and also keeping up with changes in contemporary life. He said: "As with other vintage car nuts, the old vehicle is my pride and joy, so it is very natural that I should go on writing about it, and feel enthusiastic about doing so." In addition to his Gumdrop titles, Biro wrote and illustrated many collections of traditional stories, including, most recently, Tales From the Arabian Nights (2013). He loved stories from across the world, including his birthplace, Hungary. His artwork was well suited to large-scale events such as battles, which he injected with a lively swirl, making them leap off the page. He was as successful in conveying the details of cottages, farms and the simple life of rural peasants from long ago as he was in creating characters both human and animal. He illustrated other authors' books, working particularly closely with HE Todd. Biro illustrated 14 of Todd's titles, including The Sick Cow (1974) and The Sleeping Policeman (1988). Biro's work was not confined to picture books. He was the cover artist for hundreds of fiction and non-fiction titles from 1944 onwards including CS Forester's Hornblower titles, Fanny Cradock's Cook Hostess' Book (1971), The Sherlock Holmes Cookbook (1976) and several Shakespeare plays. He also had a 21-year spell illustrating for Radio Times, although getting his work in the magazine did not come easily. Knowing it to be the most influential and powerful showcase for black-and-white illustrations at the time, Biro went to see the editor first when he was a student. Both then and on a subsequent visit, Biro failed to secure a commission. Later, he got a call to produce a picture of an angel at very short notice. There was no time to do a rough; Biro knew the picture had to be exactly what was wanted, with no time to redraw. It was, and from then on he produced a picture almost every week for the Radio Times. He was also a frequent contributor to Country Life and the Field. He was born Balint Stephen Biro in Budapest, and grew up there in a big flat overlooking the parliament building. His father was a lawyer while his artistic and creative mother, whom Biro described as "a thoroughly modern woman", played an active role in Budapest society of the 1920s and 30s. Both parents came from farming families and Biro and his older sister spent summers enjoying the delights of the Hungarian countryside. Biro was educated in Budapest at the Cistercian school and the Jaschnick School of Art. Worried by the rise of Adolf Hitler, in 1939 Biro's father arranged for him to go to the Central School of Art in London to study. He was on holiday with an English family in Cornwall in the weeks before term began when the outbreak of the second world war was announced. His student status protected him from being interned as an enemy to national security and allowed him to enrol at the Central School, then in London but soon evacuated to the Midlands. Biro studied illustration and was particularly influenced by John Farleigh's wood engravings for Struwwelpeter by Heinrich Hoffman. Biro soon discovered how time-consuming wood engraving was and turned instead to scraperboard techniques as a quicker way of producing the results he wanted. Graduating in 1942, Biro planned to join the armed forces but was limited to working as an ambulance driver or for the National Fire Service. He joined the latter and also began work in the design side of publishing, first as a studio manager at the Sylvan Press and latterly as art director at the publishers John Lehmann until it went out of business in 1953. Biro was offered the chance of other employment but took the opportunity to go freelance, building on his excellent contacts for commissions." http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jul/29/val-biro
