Dick Bruna
DUTCH illustrator and author Dick Bruna was responsible for creating one of the world’s most iconic children’s literary characters, a little white rabbit known as Miffy which goes on adventures to places such as the beach and the zoo.
Bruna first came up with the idea for Miffy during a vacation in 1955 where he began telling his son stories about a rabbit which lived near their holiday home.
That same year he introduced Miffy in his second book, naming her Nijntje (“little rabbit”). It was English translator Olive Jones who christened her Miffy.
Father-of-three Bruna went on to write 32 books about the rabbit, which were translated into more than 50 languages and sold more than 85 million copies. In addition Bruna wrote and illustrated a further 92 books over six decades but Miffy was by far his most popular and enduring character.
Born in Utrecht and given the grand first names Hendrik Magdalenus, he was part of a great Dutch publishing family – Bruna is as familiar in Holland as WH Smith is in Britain.
From a young age he was expected to go into the family business, having been sent to Paris and London to learn about publishing and bookselling. But Bruna had other ideas.
A keen artist from childhood he studied at art school in Amsterdam for six months before leaving to join the family firm in 1951.
There he worked as a designer and illustrator, creating more than 100 posters and 2,000 book jackets – including the covers for Georges Simenon’s Maigret titles in the 1960s.
He began writing and illustrating children’s books during the 1950s, publishing his first picture book De Appel (The Apple) in 1953.
Bruna, who retired in 2014, died peacefully in his sleep and is survived by his wife Irene and their children.